Semantics of Attributes of Japanese Buddhist Sculpture

Abstract

The article is devoted to the description and analysis of some iconographic elements inherent in Buddhist cult sculpture, which made communication between a person and a deity possible. The set being analyzed in this article, which is distinguished by its diversity, is limited to attributes that the deities hold in their hands, as well as crowns crowning the heads of deities, since they occupy a particularly important place in the structure of Buddhist iconography. The various identification marks endowed with Buddhist deities, in general, remain unchanged. As symbols, since images of deities are perceived by the adherents of the faith, they contribute to the birth of the corresponding associations. Embodied in Buddhist sculpture with their characteristic semantics, the attributes help to understand the essence of Buddha's teaching. Some objects are an information sign exclusively for a certain deity, others may belong to the subject environment of different deities. In the visual arts of Japan, the attributes of Buddhist sculpture have become a conventional image, contributing to the message of the versatility of Buddhist teaching, revealing its spiritual essence. Religious and aesthetic merged into one in the works of outstanding masters, who paid special attention to iconographic details, giving them artistic expressiveness. Buddhist sculpture uses symbols with well-established traditional meanings – religious values that have become common culture. The semantic structure of the symbol appeals to the experience and knowledge of a parishioner in a temple or a visitor in a museum, deepening and expanding his spiritual and mental space. This is facilitated by the canonized system of pictorial language that has developed over the centuries.