Speaker: Sherry Fowler, Associate Professor, Art History, University of Kansas

Sherry Fowler is Associate Professor of Japanese Art History at University of Kansas. She received her PhD in Japanese Art History from UCLA. Her scholarly interests range from ninth-century Buddhist sculpture to nineteenth-century Japanese prints. Among her publications is Muroji: Rearranging Art and History at a Japanese Buddhist Temple. She is finishing a book on the images of the Six Kannon cult in Japan.

Abstract:

By the sixteenth century, many temples in Japan were organized into different thirty-three stop pilgrimage routes with a central icon of Kannon to which pilgrims directed their prayers. Modest print reproductions of these icons were available to pilgrims in order to help them attain personal connections with particular icons. In addition to the prints of sacred images sold at the sites, illustrated stories that touted the benefits of a particular Kannon were also widely published as popular prints. This talk will consider the role that prints play in mediating pilgrimage experience, with a focus on prints that target women.