Description

The Japanese term for substituting an unexpected figure for a conventional one is mitate (見立), or “stand-in.” Oda Mayumi applies the device, popular in ukiyo-e prints of the Edo period (1615–1868), to Monju (Manjushri in Sanskrit), a bodhisattva—a being among those considered enlightened in Buddhism—who symbolizes wisdom. One form of this bodhisattva depicts him as a child with his hair in knots. Oda’s Monju is instead a woman with her hair in a similar style, who also holds a nyoi (如意), a staff used by Buddhist clergy when delivering formal lectures.