Ningen Isu: Matter is Void (23 studio album). About the cover.

 The 23rd original album 

will be released on September 6th.

“色即是空” ☸️

“Matter is Void” 

(This is from the Heart Sutra).

The album cover (the art director Is Masato Kassai and the last photo is belong to him) was created by manga artist/illustrator Jun Miura, and features a Buddhist statue Jinja Taisho / 深沙大将.*

The back cover also uses the Thousand-Armed Kannon drawn by Jun Miura, and an illustration of a Buddha statue. 

Jun Miura, who was a vocalist in the band "Oshima Nagisa", has a connection with "Ikaten" as well as Ningen Isu. 

In addition, Shinji Wajima (Vo & G) asked the calligrapher Tempu Miyata to write the characters for the album title "Shikisoku Zekuu”.

The artist’s photo, which was released at the same time as the album cover was taken at the wet plate photography museum in Nippori Yanaka, Tokyo, using the wet plate method, a classic photography method during the Meiji Restoration. Wet plate is the second oldest photographic technique in the world, dating back 170 years. If you move, the photo it will be blurred, so for 5 to 10 seconds, you will not move at all, and the photos you take will give you a sense of the Meiji period.

Source: Barks.jp 

Theses photos are from Masato Kassai account.

#人間椅子　

#ningenisu 

#newalbum 

#人間椅子2023 

#色即是空

#shikisokuzekuu

#深沙大将　

*Jinja Taishou/深沙大将

Also Jinja Daishou. Lit. General Deep-Sand. A divinity said to have appeared in a dream to the renowned Chinese Buddhist pilgrim and translator Hsuan-tsang (Jp: Genjou 玄奘; 600/602-664) in order to encourage him when he had become lost in the desert in Central Asia on his way to India. 

According to the monk Jougyou 常暁 (?-866), who introduced this deity to Japan, his cult was extremely popular in China at the time and he was regarded as a manifestation of *Tamonten 多聞天, guardian of the northern direction *Bishamonten 毘沙門天. 

He may assume one of a variety of fearsome two-armed forms, often with snakes coiled around his wrists and ankles and a string of skulls around his neck. His belly is adorned with a child's face, he wears a tiger's skin around his waist, and his knees may each be covered by an elephant's head hanging down from his underskirt. 

A well-known statue of him is that by Kaikei 快慶 (?1183-1236?) at Kongouin 金剛院 in Maizuru 舞鶴, Kyoto, and others include those at Toudaiji 東大寺 in Nara and Yokokuraji 横蔵寺 in Gifu prefecture. Jinja Taishou is also often found together with Hsuan-tsang in depictions of the sixteen Good deities *juuroku zenshin 十六善神, regarded as tutelary gods of the 600-fascicle DAIHANNYAKYOU 大般若経 (The Great Wisdom Sutra) which was translated into Chinese by Hsuan-tsang. 

Source: www.aisf.or.jp