The COFA Annual 2013

Along the Kumano Kodo trail there are written references to a Dragon Priestess who pre-dated the arrival of Buddhism in Japan (250 to 538 CE). There is contemporary evidence of dragon energy at the shrines. These valleys of the dragon and the Nachi waterfall are still a sacred training ground for Shugano Ascetic practitioners called the yamabushi (one who bows down in the mountains). Women are remarkably absent in the Buddhism of Kumano Kodo, excepting the mother of Kukai, the ‘father’ of Japanese Buddhism. I 'suspect' that at the shrine of ‘mother of Kukai’ it is not the biological mother who is worshipped but a symbol for the strategic alliance with the sacred gynocentric priestesses who allowed, or were forced to allow, Buddhism to grow in these valleys. These female sacred landscapes retain their powers. This piece, in gold, glass and porcelain, represents the feminine dragon powers of water and fire surviving colonisation by Buddhism. Dimensions: 47cm (L) 39cm (W) 17cm (H) Materials: Porcelain, glass, gold leaf

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