Fragment of the Sütra of the Three Thousand Names of Buddha (Butsumyö-kyö)

Catalog note / 解説

This fragment was originally part of a longer text known as the Butsumyö-kyö, or Sütra of Three Thousand Names of Buddha. The sütra promises that men and women who hear the names of the three thousand Buddhas and who “read, copy, and explain them, paint their images, offer them incense, flowers, and music, praise their blessing power, and with a heart full of devotion worship them,” will be reborn in a Buddhist paradise. On this fragment, images of the Buddha have been repeatedly stamped with a wooden block in two horizontal registers. The names of the Buddha are preceded by the word namu (hail), from the Sanskrit namah. (from Pathway exhibition 1/29/08-)