The Emblem Shelf
Amida, God of the Japanese
Kircher’s Japan, seen from Rome.
- Work
- from Oedipus Aegyptiacus
- Maker
- Athanasius Kircher
- Date
- 1652–1654
- Source
- Published Rome, 1652–1654 · scan: Wikimedia Commons
Format
The full-resolution scan, color-managed to the source plate — yours to print, study, and explore.
Size
$29.00
The story
A seated figure with crossed legs and folded hands fills the page under the heading Amida Numen Iaponiorum, Amida, god of the Japanese. Athanasius Kircher, writing in Rome in the 1650s, collected reports from Jesuit missions across Asia and folded them into Oedipus Aegyptiacus, sure that every religion descended from Egypt. The figure is Amida Buddha as a European heard him described. Read it as a record of how far news travelled in 1652, and how much changed on the way.
See it on your wall
The plate, in your home
Amida, God of the Japanese printed large and framed, hung in rooms like yours. Every edition ships ready to become the piece the room is built around.
About this reproduction
- A faithful reproduction of a public-domain plate — from Oedipus Aegyptiacus (1652), held by Published Rome, 1652–1654 · scan: Wikimedia Commons. The work was published before 1931 and is centuries out of copyright.
- Printed to order on 200gsm EMA matte art paper; framed pieces sit behind acrylic, no mat.
- Color-managed to the source scan; we correct nothing and invent nothing.
- Ships in 5–10 business days, rolled in a heavy-wall tube (framed pieces ship flat-packed).
- If it arrives less than perfect, we reprint or refund — your choice.
Why our plates cost more than a poster: we print from the highest-resolution scans available, at sizes where the engraving itself becomes visible — the emblem line, the letterpress bite, the registration of colour — on stock made to outlive its owner.
