Terminal ridge-end tile (Jp. onigawara) with lotus blossom motif excavated from the abandoned temple site at Yashima, Nagahama city, Shiga prefecture

Earthenware
Height 22.1cm, breadth 23cm, thickness 2.9cm
Asuka period　7th century

Terminal ridge-end tile (Jp. onigawara) with lotus blossom motif excavated from the abandoned temple site at Yashima, Nagahama city, Shiga prefecture
  • H029776
Terminal ridge-end tile (Jp. onigawara) with lotus blossom motif excavated from the abandoned temple site at Yashima, Nagahama city, Shiga prefecture_0
  • H029776
  • 2015/05/08
Terminal ridge-end tile (Jp. onigawara) with lotus blossom motif excavated from the abandoned temple site at Yashima, Nagahama city, Shiga prefecture_1
  • H029777
  • 2015/05/08

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This is a tile that would have been fitted to the ends of eaves at the corners of a roof. From the Nara period (710–794) and on, ogres (oni) became a popular design for these types of tile; thus tiles of this shape are called onigawara (“oni -type” tiles) even if they do not have an ogre. This one dates to the Asuka period (592–710), and, along with many such tiles of the time, it is decorated with a lotus flower design. Yet the human faces that peer out from the four corners are not found in other tiles produced in Japan; it has been suggested that this tile reflects the influence of the Korean peninsula.
 
NAKAGAWA AyaEnglish by Mary Lewine 
Buddhist Art Paradise: Jewels of the Nara National Museum. Nara National Museum, 2021.7, p.350, no.19. 

Accession Number 1499-0
Category Archaeological Works
Bibliography Buddhist Art Paradise: Jewels of the Nara National Museum. Nara National Museum, 2021.7, 354p. Hakuhō, the First Full Flowering of Buddhist Art in Japan : Special Exhibition Celebrating the 120th Anniversary of the Nara National Museum. 2015, 298p. (Japanese)

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