  About the Artwork
  
  
  In 1995, after working for seven years to gain permission, Sugimoto was able to photograph inside the twelfth/thirteenth-century Buddhist temple known as the Hall of Thirty-Three Bays. The temple houses 1,000 sculptures of the bodhisattva Kannon (an enlightened being of boundless compassion) that create a vision of the Buddhist afterlife. In order to photograph the site as it would have been experienced centuries ago, Sugimoto had the temple’s late-medieval and early modern embellishments removed and the artificial lighting turned off. He captured the sculptures at the moment when they were bathed in the light of the morning sun filtering through the paper screens facing them. This photograph is from a series of 48 consecutive images. Though the photographs appear almost identical, close study of the images reveals subtle differences throughout the composition. Presented together, they immerse the viewer in what Sugimoto has called a "sea of Buddha."
From Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 89 (2015)
  
  
  Title
  Hall of Thirty-Three Bays
  
  
  Artwork Date
  1995
  
  Artist
  Hiroshi Sugimoto
  
  
  
  Life Dates
  born 1948
  
  
  
  
  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  Japanese
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
  ----------
  
  
  Medium
  Gelatin silver print
  
  
  Dimensions
  Image: 16 5/8 × 21 3/8 inches (42.2 × 54.3 cm)
  Sheet: 18 5/8 × 23 5/8 inches (47.3 × 60 cm)
  Mount: 19 3/4 × 25 inches (50.2 × 63.5 cm)
  Framed: 26 × 32 3/4 inches (66 × 83.2 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Photographs
  
  
  Department
  Prints, Drawings &amp; Photographs
  
  
  Credit
  Museum Purchase, Albert and Peggy de Salle Charitable Trust Fund, Asian and Islamic Art Forum, Asian and Islamic Art Forum Acquisition Fund; and gift of Clan Crawford, Jr. by exchange
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  2007.4.1
  
  
  Copyright
  Restricted
