kantai 冠帯

Keywords
Art History
Sculpture

Also kanzō 冠繪, tentai 天帯, hōzō 宝繪, tenkantai 天冠帯. The ornamental ribbons which hang down from the left and right side of a Buddhist crown *hōkan 宝冠 found on bodhisattva *bosatsu 菩薩 figures. The style is thought to be derived from women's hairstyles in ancient India. Kantai were either made from the same block of wood as the main image, or pieces of wood or metal attached separately. A nearly example of the latter technique is the *Guze Kannon 救世観音 in Hōryūji *Yumedono 法隆寺夢殿, Nara, where metal ribbons decorated in openwork *sukashibori 透彫 hang down over the chest and arms of the wooden figure. A good example of a statue with wooden kantai carved from the same block is the 9th-century Jūichimen Kannonzō 十一面観音像 in Kōgenji 向源寺, Shiga Prefecture. The ribbons hanging down to the knees of the Kannon are one of the longest examples of kantai. In some cases kantai were added to statues long after their construction. The Jūichimen Senju Kannonzō 十一面千手観音像 in Rengeōin 蓮華王院, Kyoto, were carved in the 12th-13th century and the kantai added in the Edo period. Styles of kantai changed with the period in which they were created: pre-13th-century figures tended to have wide bands that imitated soft cloth, and were more often carved from the same block. Later examples were usually separately carved and attached. They were narrow bands with a hard, brittle appearance.