Buddhist statue

Tamamura Kōzaburō’s Shinkōji Vairocana Photograph

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For late Victorian-era globetrotters, religious sites around Japanese port cities were often treated as picturesque tourist destinations. Such a site can be found with the Shinkō-ji lotus pond surrounding a large bronze Buddhist statue, not far from Kobe harbor.

This photograph was taken by Tamamura Kōzaburō who operated a well-known studio based in Yokohama since the early 1880s. Tamamura, like many of his peers, often sold photographic souvenirs of sites, objects, and people sought out by foreign tourists.

It was common for photographers to add people to the scene to help provide a sense of scale. The height of the Shinkō-ji statue is claimed to have been 4.8 meters tall.

While the caption on the photo identifies the statue generically as an idol, Shinkō-ji identifies it as Vairocana Buddha. According to temple records the icon was installed in 1760.

Unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge, this icon was likely destroyed by allied firebomb attacks in March 1945 during World War II. A Tamamura album with 50 photograph has been scanned by Harvard University Library, viewable here: https://tinyurl.com/3jn672n5

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

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Wa Lum (Hualin) Temple 500 Arhats Hall Postcard

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The Hualin Temple in Guangzhou, China was well known among foreign tourists at the end of the 19th century for its Hall of Five Hundred Arhats. Reportedly made of clay, the icons were installed in the early 1850s and remained until the Cultural Revolution a century later.

This postcard dates to c. 1910 and was published by the postcard dealer Moritz Sternberg who operated from Queen’s Road in Hong Kong. The original photo, however, is much older and is often attributed to Lai Afong, the most influential Chinese photographer of the late Qing.

While the temple has a history dating to the 6th century, the Arhat Hall was built in the late 1840s. It was one of the sites visited by the pioneering Scottish photographer John Thompson when he sojourned in China from 1868 to 1872.

By Thompson’s visit, rumor had spread that one of the arhat statues was actually an image of Marco Polo (not shown). Thompson notes “careful inquiry proves this statement incorrect,” nevertheless, the belief still persists to the present.

While the icons were replaced in the 1990s, several photographs exist of the originals that were destroyed. A copy of the original photo for this postcard is found in the Hotz Collection of Leiden University Library, viewable here: https://tinyurl.com/2syahybe

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

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Hakone Pass Jizō Magic Lantern Slide

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At the end of the 19th century, glass “magic lantern” slides were part of popular American entertainment. After returning home, world travelers sometimes gave informal lectures in church halls or town theaters about their experiences, often using these slides.

This monumental Jizō was created c. 1300 and sits by a mountain pass where travelers on the famed Tōkaidō made their journey. We can see the rocky outlines of an old wooden roof; the small shrine hall was destroyed during an eruption of Mt. Fuji in 1707.

The slide was produced by a New York studio and featured an unknown Euro-American tourist center frame.

Japanese porters can be seen among the entourage.

The photosensitive emulsion is sandwiched between two panels of glass for protection. The tape around the edges holds the glass panels together.

The Hakone Pass Jizō was a popular tourist destination at the turn of the 20th century; it is still viewable today. For more on Jizō and this particular icon, see Hank Glassman, The Face of Jizo: Image and Cult in Medieval Japanese Buddhism, 2012.

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

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George Planté’s Ruins of Ankgor Postcard

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The Golden Age of postcards began with early postcard illustrations of the Eiffel Tower in 1889. Thus, when French military arrived in French colonial Vietnam, then known as Indochina, a market emerged for pictorial imagery of the region – including Buddhist temples.

The caption here give the description: “Souvenir of the Ruins of ANGKOR.” The publisher, George Planté, had operated a photography studio in Saigon and started selling postcards by 1905.

In addition to the large central Buddha statue, several other Buddhist icons are placed on the altar. I have been unable to identify which area of Angkor this photograph depicts.

The design on the back suggests this card was published in 1905 (the date 1906 is inscribed on the front). The front also bears the affixed stamp – this was typically done so the card could be placed in an album and still display the cancelled stamp.

It was likely postcards such as this were printed in Europe using the most up-to-date photo-mechanical printing techniques and then sent back to the colonial publishers for resale.

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

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Pacific Curio Shop Niō Statue Postcard

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A pair of muscular, wrathful Niō, “Benevolent Kings,” often stand guard at the entrance to Japanese Buddhist temples. In the late 1950s, however, this Niō was stationed outside John Saxby’s Pacific Curio Shop on Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco.

Saxby was a WWI veteran and a Merchant Marine who became a well-respected amateur conchologist. In addition to offering a world-class shell exhibit, Saxby imported Japanese curios, a thriving market post-WWII.

Strands of shells and postcards can also be seen for sale.

The shop’s “Temple Guardian” was apparently important enough to warrant its own postcard. The “Kodak Paper” stamp box dates this card to after 1950.

The icon’s closed mouth identifies this guardian as Ungyō; I am unsure of where this statue originated. A photo of Saxby inspecting another imported icon can be found at the San Francisco Public Library: https://digitalsf.org/islandora/object/islandora:137138

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

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Pierre Dieulefils’ Tārā Postcard

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The École Française d’Extrême-Orient was founded at the turn of the 20th century in Hanoi in what was then French Indochina. Around 1905 Pierre Dieulefils appears to have taken photographs of the institution’s nascent collection of Buddhist statuary.

The date of 1905 is derived from the presumed publication date of Dieulefils “red series” postcards. Dieulefils’ studio was also in Hanoi and he worked closely with the French institution photographing Angkor Wat.

The red letterpress caption at the top of the card identifies the icon as the Goddess Tārā. I have been unable to determine who has possession of the statue today.

Dieulefils built a thriving postcard business upon the desires of French officers to send picture souvenirs home to France.

Since 1958 the old archaeological research institution of the École Française d’Extrême-Orient in Hanoi has operated as the Vietnam National Museum of History. The museum’s website can be found here: https://baotanglichsu.vn/vi

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

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Wall Street Mystery (1920) Promotional Handbook

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The five-reel Mystery of Wall Street was a 1920 entry of the short-lived Tex, the Elucidator of Mysteries, film series by Arrow Film Company. One scene, set in New York’s Chinatown, is used for the photo illustration of the film’s promotional trade handbook.

Played by Glenn White, Tex was a private detective who had been previously jailed on circumstantial evidence, thus his mission was to vindicate victims of injustice. Wall Street Mystery investigates the unresolved murder of a New York trade broker.

Eventually Tex is led to the broker’s Japanese valet who frequents Chinatown’s opium dens. Philippa Gates has demonstrated the popularity of the “Chinatown opium film” genre of the 1910s: “Opium dens…were a shorthand in American film to connect Chinatown to…criminality.”

Tex visits Chinatown’s opium den in disguise and a fight soon breaks out. The valet, who Tex had suspected for the murder, is found to be innocent based on his fingerprints; the case against him had proven to be mere circumstantial evidence.

Early film trade handbooks, like the one seen here, revealed the entire story to help the theater owner decide to purchase the reels. This included advertising and publicity suggestions.

The statue of the Buddha on the cover visually supports both the sense of mystery and the Chinatown locale. See also Philippa Gates, Criminalization/Assimilation: Chinese/Americans and Chinatowns in Classical Hollywood Film (New Brunswick: Rutgers, 2019).

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

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1933 Golden Pavilion Laughing Buddha Playing Card

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The 1933 Chicago World’s Fair held a true wonder: A Chinese replica of an 18th century Tibetan Buddhist shrine hall, the Golden Temple of Jehol. While the hall included a main shrine to Guanyin, the Laughing Buddha at the front entrance was often used in advertising.

Due to growing conflict in East Asia, the Chinese government withdrew from the 1933 World’s Fair. Subsequently, organizers arranged for display of the recently acquired temple replica of Vincent Bendix, a well-known Chicago industrialist.

Bendix had funded the expedition of Sved Hedin a few years earlier to procure a replica of a Chinese Buddhist temple. The original interest was to display two replica temples with Tibetan religious objects, one in Chicago and one in Stockholm.

Only one replica was made, but Hedin acquired many ritual implements, including thankas and icons, to outfit the building. Named the Bendix Golden Temple (or Pavilion), it was a Chinese-made replica of the Wanfaguiyi Hall in present-day Chengde (Jehol).

The temple was rebuilt for the 1939 World’s Fair in New York. As of 2018 the remains of the temple hall are in Stockholm, but the ritual items and furnishing have all been lost.

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

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Adolfo Farsari’s Kamakura Daibutsu Photograph

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In 1886, a year after Adolfo Farsari opened his Yokohama photography studio, it burned to the ground during a city-wide fire. Farsari spent the next several months traveling Japan to replenish his stock, including several Buddhist sites popular among globetrotting tourists.

Moreover, with the destruction of Farsari’s studio, he also lost the older negatives of Felice Beato and Baron von Stillfried. Farsari’s studio was among the last of the foreign studios in Yokohama as more Japanese photographers were turning to professional ventures.

Farsari’s scene of the Kamakura Daibutsu shows a person in the middle of prayer.

We can also see another man standing on the stone pedestal, a common sight in photographs of this era.

Farsari’s work earned the praise Rudyard Kipling who complimented him on the fidelity of the hand-coloring. Further commentary on Farsari’s Kamakura Daibutsu photo can be found here: https://peterromaskiewicz.com/2019/01/19/farsaris-dai-butsu-visual-literacy-of-buddhism/

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

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George Planté’s Hall of a Thousand Buddhas Postcard

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George Planté came to Vietnam as a member of the colonial French government, but by 1893 had turned to photography and opened a studio in Saigon. He soon recognized the desire for postcards among the overseas French military and was selling the inexpensive souvenirs by 1905.

The undivided back design of this French card suggests it was published in 1905 or before. Around this time, Planté seems to have acquired the old stock of Aurélien Pestel, thus the photograph on the front may have been taken by Pestel.

The caption gives the location as Angkor Wat, but this is the interior of the Preah Poan, known commonly as the Hall of a Thousand Buddhas. The presence of the Buddhist statues clearly shows how the original temple devoted to Viṣṇu was taken over by Buddhists.

The statues that once filled the open cruciform hall have all been removed in the course of restoration and preservation.

Photographs from the turn of the century capture how the hall once looked filled with Buddhist icons. Google Arts & Culture has a 360-degree view of the hall today, see here: https://tinyurl.com/yckkbumz

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

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