Creative Commons License
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons License
Blade - Sword and Dragon
(Japanese Military Armor)
This iconography of a dragon wrapped around a sword represents Kôbô Daishi's sword. Kôbô Daishi (also known as Kûkai; 774-834) was a Buddhist priest who studied in China and founded the Shingon sect of Buddhism in Japan. It is said he used a sword that had a rain dragon wrapped around it to bring rain at the end of a drought. The signature on the back is a forgery of an earlier artist's signature. This is part of a mounted set.
Inscription
Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.
Henry Walters, Baltimore [date and mode of acquistion unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
Geographies
Japan (Place of Origin)
Measurements
L: 8 3/8 in. (21.3 cm)
Credit Line
Acquired by Henry Walters
Location in Museum
Not on view
Accession Number
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
51.1220.4