tenchigan　天地眼

KEY WORD :　art history / sculptures

Also tenchigen. A facial expression found on *Fudou Myouou 不動明王, where the right eye is wide open looking upwards, and the left eye is half closed looking down to the earth. This is an expression of fury *funnusou 忿怒相, showing the Buddha's anger against evil. The upward and downward cast of the eyes is said to represent the fact that Fudou Myouou saves not only those who stand before him, but all beings between heaven and earth. The tenchigan look is emphasized by an upward-pointing fang-tooth emerging from the right side of the mouth, under the upcast eye, and a downward fang-tooth from the left side. Fudou Myouou images were first produced with the introduction of Esoteric Buddhism to Japan in the early Heian period (9c), and almost all early images to have been invented by the Tendai 天台 priest An'nen 安念 (841-915), and become popular in the early Fujiwara period (10c). By the Nanbokuchou period (late 13c), they formed the majority of Fudou Myouou figures, and continued to be produced through the Edo period (17-19c).

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