Takashi Murakami – Assignation of a Spirit (2016)

Assignation of a Spirit  (2016)

Artist: Takashi Murakami
Title: One With Four Eyes
Year: 2016
Medium: Offset print with silver
Sheet Size: 68.0 × 68.0 cm (26 3/4 × 26 3/4 in)
Edition: 300 — signed and numbered
Type: Limited edition offset print with silver

Assignation of a Spirit (2016) is the most cosmologically expansive of the three companion prints in Murakami's 2016 Buddhist series — a composition that draws explicitly on the Japanese tradition of spirit summoning, exorcism, and the shamanic mediation between the human world and the supernatural. A towering elongated figure dominates the left half of the composition, his distorted face and serpentine tongue suggesting a being that exists at the boundary between arhat and demon, enlightened and possessed. Golden staffs arc across the picture plane; a white goat stands serenely at the right, an ornamented blue tree beside it; smaller figures — some alarmed, some absorbed, some barely visible — populate the lower register in the dense, layered manner of a Japanese emakimono narrative scroll.

Where Arhats staged a spare encounter and One With Four Eyes presented a crowd of Buddhist disciples, Assignation of a Spirit introduces the ritual dimension — the moment of contact between worlds, the assignment of a spirit to a body or a place, rendered with the full force of Murakami's engagement with the esoteric traditions of Japanese Shingon and Tendai Buddhism. The white goat — an animal associated with sacrifice, purity, and the liminal in multiple religious traditions — anchors the supernatural chaos of the left half of the composition with a physical stillness that makes the surrounding activity feel more urgent by contrast.

The silver metallic ground — the same printing process shared across all three works in the series — here creates a particularly atmospheric effect, the diamond pattern appearing to dissolve into mist at the edges of the composition and recede behind the figures into an indeterminate depth. Produced in an edition of 300, signed and numbered by the artist. The third and final companion piece to Arhats and One With Four Eyes — together the three prints constitute one of the most ambitious and culturally specific series in Murakami's graphic catalogue.

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FAQ

Is this an original Takashi Murakami print?
Yes — an original offset print with silver, signed and numbered by the artist from an edition of 300.

How does this work complete the 2016 Buddhist series?
Assignation of a Spirit is the third companion piece to Arhats and One With Four Eyes — together the three prints form a coherent triptych exploring Buddhist iconography, spirit mediation, and Japanese esoteric religious tradition through Murakami's SuperFlat visual language.

What is the "assignation of a spirit"?
In Japanese esoteric Buddhist tradition, the assignation or summoning of a spirit refers to ritual practices of Shingon and Tendai Buddhism in which spirits are invoked, assigned to protective roles, or mediated between the human and supernatural worlds.

What is the significance of the white goat?
The white goat — an animal associated with purity, sacrifice, and the liminal in multiple religious traditions — provides a counterpoint of physical stillness to the supernatural energy of the surrounding figures.

What is the edition size?
300 impressions — signed and numbered by Murakami.

Is the work framed?
Please contact us for framing options.

Do you ship internationally?
Yes — worldwide, with museum-grade flat packaging for large-format works on paper, full insurance, and shipment tracking.

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