Honzon Group
Buddhist images are ubiquitous in Japan and play a major role in the religious landscape of Japanese monastic practice. Japanese Buddhist paintings, sculptures, calligraphies, and relics have been a central and significant part of Japanese religion, politics, and everyday life. These sacred images serve as representations of religious ideals, commemorations of important saints and religious figures, and as auxiliary aids to meditative practices. Symbolically, the images and icons function as living metaphors for esoteric Buddhism and monastic practice. Buddhist images effectively enliven and empower their hosts, making them a crucial part of religious practice.
For our sculpture project, we attempted to capture the characteristic of Japanese Buddhist images that establishes a living and empowering presence. We decided that a Gorinto would serve this purpose well. A Gorinto is a type of Japanese Buddhist pagoda that literally translates into “five-ringed tower”. Also called a “five-ringed stupa”, the Gorinto represents the Five Elements of the universe. In all its variations, the Gorinto includes five rings, each one having one of the five shapes symbolic of the Five Elements: the Earth ring (a cube), the water ring (a sphere), the fire ring (a pyramid), the air ring (a crescent), and the ether ring, also known as the energy or void ring (a jewel). The rings express the idea that after death, our bodies will return to their original, element form. A Gorinto is usually made of stone, but some built with wood, metal, or crystal exist. For our purposes, we sculpted our Gorinto out of Brazilian soapstone.
Each ring of the Gorinto possesses specific symbolic qualities. The top symbol fuses the shape of a crescent, representing wisdom, and a triangle, representing principle. The fusion of these qualities represents perfection, or Buddhahood. The crescent of water represents receptivity, and is similar to a cup ready to receive from the heavens. The triangle is a point of transition between two worlds and as such represents both unification and movement. It indicates the activity necessary to reach Enlightenment. The circle represents completion, or the attainment of wisdom. The square is a symbol of the four elements.
For our sculpture project, we attempted to capture the characteristic of Japanese Buddhist images that establishes a living and empowering presence. We decided that a Gorinto would serve this purpose well. A Gorinto is a type of Japanese Buddhist pagoda that literally translates into “five-ringed tower”. Also called a “five-ringed stupa”, the Gorinto represents the Five Elements of the universe. In all its variations, the Gorinto includes five rings, each one having one of the five shapes symbolic of the Five Elements: the Earth ring (a cube), the water ring (a sphere), the fire ring (a pyramid), the air ring (a crescent), and the ether ring, also known as the energy or void ring (a jewel). The rings express the idea that after death, our bodies will return to their original, element form. A Gorinto is usually made of stone, but some built with wood, metal, or crystal exist. For our purposes, we sculpted our Gorinto out of Brazilian soapstone.
Each ring of the Gorinto possesses specific symbolic qualities. The top symbol fuses the shape of a crescent, representing wisdom, and a triangle, representing principle. The fusion of these qualities represents perfection, or Buddhahood. The crescent of water represents receptivity, and is similar to a cup ready to receive from the heavens. The triangle is a point of transition between two worlds and as such represents both unification and movement. It indicates the activity necessary to reach Enlightenment. The circle represents completion, or the attainment of wisdom. The square is a symbol of the four elements.
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