Ritual and Religious Objects
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Ritual and Religious Objects
Vessels and figural representations created for burial and religious rituals are among the earliest works discovered in both China and Japan. This section includes Chinese bronzes from the Shang (ca. 1600�1050 BCE) through the Han (206 BCE�220 CE) period. Fashioned to hold offerings of food and drink for the deceased or cast in commemoration of a major event, the earliest of these elaborately decorated pieces often have forms that were derived from Neolithic ceramic prototypes. The examples of later Chinese imperial ritual stem cups and plates also have ties to ancient ritual forms. During the Ming period (1368�1644) imperial porcelains with specific colors and patterns were commissioned for temples where particular ancestral ceremonial worship or annual rituals took place.
Various kinds of sculptural figures are connected with burial rituals in China or Japan. By the Western Han period (206 BCE�9 CE) in China earthenware figures in tombs had generally replaced the human and animal sacrifices that occurred in earlier times. In Japan, during the Tumulus period (ca. 300�710), large protective figures made of earthenware were placed around tomb mounds. Artists and craftsmen created many representations of deities for worship in temples, monasteries, altars, and shrines. The Buddhist pieces exhibited in the show include images created for worship and an attendant figure.
