Dusenbury Color Color Asia East in and Medieval Ancient spencer museum of art Color in Ancient and Medieval Asia East Color in and Medieval Ancient the University of Kansas yale university press Color in Ancient and Medieval East Asia Color in Ancient and Medieval East Asia Mary M Dusenbury editor and project director with essays by Monica Bethe Chika Mouri Mary M Dusenbury Park Ah-rim Shih-shan Susan Huang Hillary Pedersen Ikumi Kaminishi Lisa Shekede and Su Bomin Guolong Lai Sim Yeon-ok and Lee Seonyong Richard Laursen Tanaka Yoko Liu Jian and Zhao Feng Zhao Feng and Long Bo Published by the Spencer Museum of Art, the University of Kansas Distributed by Yale University Press, New Haven and London Contents Section I 7 Director’s Foreword Colors and Color Symbolism in Ancient China Saralyn Reece Hardy 25 Colors and Color Symbolism in Early 9 History of the Project Chinese Ritual Art Mary M Dusenbury Red and Black and the Formation of the Five Colors System 11 Introduction Guolong Lai Mary M Dusenbury 16 Acknowledgments Section II Tomb and Grotto Paintings 19 Notes to the Reader 47 Wall Paintings at the Mogao Grotto 20 Chronology Site, Dunhuang, China Color Use from Northern Wei to Tang Lisa Shekede and Su Bomin 59 Colors in Mural Paintings in Goguryeo Kingdom Tombs Park Ah-rim Section III Dyes in Ancient Chinese and Japanese Textiles 81 Yellow and Red Dyes in Ancient Asian Textiles Richard Laursen 93 Jincao (Arthraxon hispidus) A Plant Used in Traditional Chinese Medicine and for Dyeing Yellow Chika Mouri 103 Imperial Yellow in the Sixth Century A Preliminary Attempt to Reproduce Imperial Yellow Based on Instructions in the Qimin yaoshu Zhao Feng and Long Bo 113 Dye Analysis of Two Polychrome Woven Textiles from the Han and Tang Dynasties Liu Jian and Zhao Feng Section IV Appendix Color at the Court of Japan The Substance of Color 123 Color at the Japanese Court in the 235 Botanical and historical information Asuka and Nara Periods about the major dye plants used in Mary M Dusenbury ancient and medieval East Asia Mary M Dusenbury 135 Color in the Man’yōshū, an Eighth‑Century Anthology of Japanese Poetry 253 Author Biographies Monica Bethe 261 Bibliography 143 Embroidered Slippers in the Shōsōin Repository 277 Index Tanaka Yoko 287 Photography Credits 149 Color and Yearly Palace Rituals in Japan during the Nara and Heian Periods Monica Bethe 163 Color at the Court of Japan in the Heian Period Mary M Dusenbury Section V Color in Religious Art in Medieval East Asia 181 Colors of the Five Directions Associated with Deposits Enshrined in Buddhist Statues in Korea Sim Yeon-ok and Lee Seonyong 193 Color Schemes in Early and Medieval Japanese Buddhist Imagery Hillary Pedersen 209 Zenmyō’s True Colors Demonstrating Non‑Duality of Form and Emptiness in the Kegon Scroll Ikumi Kaminishi 223 Daoist Uses of Color in Visualization and Ritual Practices Shih-shan Susan Huang Detail of plate 2, “Color at the Court of Japan in the Heian Period,” page 166 Director’s Foreword The process of investigating the role and power domains, we began to expand our own view of of color in Ancient and Medieval East Asia collection research and artistic research and to built a new and somewhat unexpected com‑ propose the art museum as a powerful engine munity of scholars around a revelatory topic of cross‑disciplinary inquiry. One of the signif‑ rich with interdisciplinary research potential. icant roles of the art museum is to recognize These scholars created new paths of explora‑ and express wonder and meaning in the broad tion that crisscross the territories of art, his‑ spectrum of the world over time. The Spencer tory, science, technologies, and society. In this Museum takes this role very seriously, allowing endeavor, dedicated experts reached beyond us to serve as an ideal host for this investiga‑ knowledge bequeathed by scholars in their tion of a complex phenomenon across broad home disciplines and information mined in geographic territories and cultural epochs. previous research, demonstrating the pris‑ The University of Kansas proved to be a gen‑ matic ways that a subject such as color— erous host for the color project, as the ideas and when placed in a broad historical context participants connected and convened and as with multiple perspectives—can illuminate the Spencer Museum began to take on a more approaches and methodologies and reveal central role in interdisciplinary research on new forms of knowledge discovery. Color as a campus. The Commons (a partnership between source of power and inspiration, as metaphor, the Spencer Museum, the Biodiversity Institute, color representative of cosmology and reli‑ and the Hall Center for the Humanities), which gion, as indicator of political life, marker of hosted the two colloquia, and the KU Research status and position, representation of natural Investment Council, which funded the Spencer resources, transformative agent, and as media‑ Museum’s Arts Research Collaboration ini‑ tor of forces—these are only a few of the larger tiative, are both dynamic examples of the themes within this publication. Each section University’s commitment to research teams draws upon multiple philosophies, contested and projects that cross traditional boundar‑ interpretations, specific examples, and distinct ies in order to explore new ground. Under the materialities. Captivating in its many appear‑ strong leadership of Chancellor Bernadette ances, the interplay between ideas, creativity, Gray‑Little and Provost Jeffrey Vitter, KU has and the material world demonstrates the rela‑ provided facilities, financial support, and a tionship of the poetic imagination—so crucial stimulating context for this and other inter‑ in art—to rigorous individual scholarship of disciplinary exploration. Further essential every kind. Such a relationship is essential to support for scholars and invited participants appreciate what cannot be seen at our contem‑ was given selflessly by the entire staff of the porary remove. Spencer Museum of Art. I am also grateful to When this project began four years ago, we the many other individuals and organizations at the Spencer Museum of Art hoped that it who contributed materially and intellectually would serve as a research exemplar, provok‑ to make this project possible. Finally, it is my ing new questions through energetic dialogue great honor to thank Dr. Mary M Dusenbury with multiple disciplines. In its realization the for her foresight and total commitment to real‑ colloquia, writings, and conversations addi‑ izing this ambitious project. Her intelligence, tionally became a way to consider how the vision, and her own sense of artistic possibility processes of artmaking (including the selec‑ grant Color in Ancient and Medieval East Asia its tion of materials and techniques) suggest and individual and collective splendor. in many cases demand broad investigations. By exploring the concept of color across multiple saralyn reece hardy 7 Figure 5 “Wall Paintings at the Mogao Grotto Site, Dunhuang, China,” page 54 History of the Project Many years ago I went to talk to Wai‑kam questions, and scholarly approaches, the group Ho, then curator of Chinese art at the Nelson‑ met for a final session to evaluate the collo‑ Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City. quium. We agreed that the topic offered fer‑ Wai‑kam told me that if I wanted to under‑ tile ground for further exploration and that stand color in ancient China, the first thing I we would like to expand the project, identify should comprehend was that color is a source other scholars who might collaborate, and of power. We talked further, but he brushed plan a larger symposium with a publication aside lesser questions to emphasize the impor‑ to follow. tance of understanding that color has power. It One of the most valuable outcomes of the was a potent force in ancient Chinese society. 2010 colloquium was the establishment of a This book is the outcome of years of re‑ network of scholars who were committed to search and the collaboration of chemists, con‑ an interdisciplinary approach to the study of servators, archaeologists, dyers, historians of color. When the group met in 2010, the sci‑ art and literature, and scholars of Buddhism entific and art historical work presented had and Daoism. Separately and together we have no points of intersection, although each par‑ worked to explore the roles that color—and ticipant had questions that other disciplines specific dyes and mineral pigments—played in could help solve. Since then, in preparation the social and political life, thought, art, and for the larger symposium, several members of ritual practices of ancient and medieval East the original group worked together to develop Asia. The source material is rich and includes topics that had relevance beyond a single dynastic histories, court documents, travelers’ academic field and that could be addressed journals, merchants’ ledgers, literature, Daoist from multiple viewpoints and disciplines. In liturgical and meditative manuals, paintings in December 2011, for example, Zhao Feng, direc‑ tombs and Buddhist grottoes, religious icons, tor of the China National Silk Museum in paintings on silk and on paper, pottery, lacquer, Hangzhou, and I met to discuss topics that he and textiles. and his colleagues might develop for the proj‑ The seeds for this book were sown at a ect. From this grew the idea that Liu Jian, a new College Art Association conference. In 2003 I scientific researcher at the China National Silk organized a panel, Languages of Color in East Museum, might work with Richard Laursen in Asian Visual Culture, for that conference and Boston for further training and to conduct the invited several scholars represented in this vol‑ dye analysis for his project. Laursen and his ume to discuss the role of color in East Asian team had recently completed groundbreaking cultures.