Notable Japanese Mandalas Go on View at Metropolitan Museum of Art, ArtDaily.org

Diamond World Mandala (Kongōkai Mandara). Kamakura period (1185-1333), 13th century. Hanging scroll; ink, color, and gold on silk, overall with mounting: 84 1/2 x 47 3/8 (214.7 x 127.3 cm); image: 46 11/16 x 38 7/8 in. (118.6 x 98.7 cm) Brooklyn Museum. 21.240.1. Museum Collection Fund. (web image)
NEW YORK, NY.- A loan exhibition featuring an impressive group of Japanese mandalas, graphic depictions of the Buddhist universe and its myriad realms and deities, will open at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on June 18. Showcasing more than 60 magnificent works—painting, sculpture, drawing, metalwork, stoneware, textiles, and lacquer—drawn from major museums and collections in the United States, Japanese Mandalas: Emanations and Avatars will illustrate the exceptional and complex world of Esoteric Buddhist art in Japan. Highlights of the exhibition include a set of monumental 13th-century mandalas on loan from the Brooklyn Museum—this pair was selected by the Japanese government to be conserved in Japan. Displayed in tandem with iconographic drawings that explain the character and placement of the deities, the mandalas will introduce the viewer to the supreme Buddha Dainichi Nyorai, the principle buddha of Japanese Esoteric Buddhism, and his innumerable emanations and avatars across the Buddhist cosmos. http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=31522