Snapshots of the Past

[Blind monks examining an elephant] – Historic Reproduction

[Blind monks examining an elephant] — historic print
[Blind monks examining an elephant]. Historic print from the Japanese Prints collection.

(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

This rare historic print captures [Blind monks examining an elephant] in remarkable detail. The original is held by the Library of Congress, so what you hang is a true record of its time.

Choose the framed print, ready to hang the day it arrives, or the unframed print for a frame of your own. Perfect for a home, office, library or classroom wall, and a gift with a story behind it. Free shipping in the lower 48 states. Since 2001, Snapshots of the Past has shipped historic prints to tens of thousands of customers around the world.

[Blind monks examining an elephant]

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Three blind monks crowd around an elephant here, each gripping a different part of the animal and reaching their own conclusion about what it is. The scene illustrates a parable that appears in the Pali Buddhist canon and was later told across Asia, usually to show how partial perception can mislead people who insist their limited view is the whole truth. This 1888 color woodcut comes from the Meiji period, when Japanese printmakers often drew on older Buddhist teaching and folk stories for subjects that were both instructive and visually striking.

Medium1 print : woodcut, color.
Genredreams and substances
Notes[1888]
SubjectsBuddhist monks--Japan--1880-1890. Parables--Japan--1880-1890. Blind persons--Japan--1880-1890. Elephants--Japan--1880-1890.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan5,000 × 4,006 px · prints to 17 × 13 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-222103

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