Pilgrim's coat

mid 18th century - mid 19th century

On the back of this coat, three big Sanskrit letters and smaller Buddhist texts appear on plain woven undyed cloth. Around the letter in the center, four red seals of Buddhist temples were stamped. This simple, unlined garment was worn by a Buddhist pilgrim, probably during a pilgrimage to the eighty-eight temples in Shikoku, the island southwest of Japan’s main island.

Asa cloth with ink and temple seals

40 1/8 x 50 in. (101.92 x 127 cm)

Gift of the Christensen Fund

2001.533

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Discovering Buddhist Art - Seeking the Sublime, July 9, 2003 - June 3, 2005.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Boundless: Stories of Asian Art, Feb. 8, 2020 - ongoing [on view Feb. 8, 2020 - July 11, 2021].

Published ReferencesFoong, Ping, Xiaojin Wu, and Darielle Mason. "An Asian Art Museum Transformed." Orientations vol. 51, no. 3 (May/June 2020): p. 59, reproduced fig. 20 (installation view).

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

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