Heart Sutra

Date2002

Maker Yoon Kwang-cho Korean, born 1946

Label TextThe Heart Sutra, a popular Buddhist text that summarizes Buddha’s wisdom, is incised onto this ceramic sculpture’s surface. The artist inscribed Chinese characters for the sutra text and added a final line of a rhythmic Buddhist chant (“Ah jae ah jae ba ra sa ah jae”) in Hangul, the Korean alphabet. A result of Yoon Kwang-cho’s devotion in Buddhist practice, the object emulates 16th-century Buncheong ware, which typically has a coarse gray body decorated with white slip.

Object number2005.111

Photo CreditPhoto: Paul Macapia

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Mountain Dreams Contemporary Ceramics by Yoon Kwang-cho, November 13, 2004 - June 12, 2005. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Meot: Korean Art from the Frank Bayley Collection, August 28, 2024 - March 9, 2025.Published References"Seattle Art Museum: Bridging Cultures." London: Scala Publishers Ltd. for the Seattle Art Museum, 2007, p. 40, illus. p. 41

Credit LineThe Asian Art Council, Frank S. Bayley III, Jacqueline MacRae, Everett and Andrea Paup, Griffith and Patricia Way, B. Joan Christoffersen, Maxine Gorton-Stewart, Kazuhiro Kawasaki, John Pehrson, Joanne Algarin, Nancy D. Haigwood, Estelle Wertheimer, and the Margaret E. Fuller Purchase Fund

Dimensions20 1/2 x 19 5/8 x 9 in. (52.1 x 49.8 x 22.9 cm)

MediumPunchong; stoneware with white slip, gold