Talia Andrei: “The Elderly Nun, The Rain Treasure Child, and the Wish-Fulfilling Jewel: Tracing Patronage and Buddhist Networks at the Grand Shrine of Ise”

This talk will center on a recently discovered painting that portrays a nun invoking the deity Uhō Dōji in the form enshrined at Kongōshōji, a Buddhist temple situated at the top of Asama Mountain. Based on the iconographic elements of the painting, I will argue that the nun is from Keikōin, a powerful Buddhist nunnery famous in Japan’s late-medieval history for its vigorous and successful fundraising campaigns on behalf of the Grand (Shinto) Shrine of Ise.