On a moonlit night, a Buddhist monk collects cassia seeds. No. 93 from the series One Hundred Aspects of the Moon

According to Chinese legend, eight magical cassia trees grow on the moon, and when their leaves turn red in autumn, they give the harvest moon its color. Here a lohan (or rakan in Japanese), one of the guardians of the Buddhist teachings, catches the seeds from the moon’s magical cassia trees in his begging bowl. The seeds were believed to give the person who eats them immortality and the power to become invisible. The moon forms the halo behind the rakan’s head. (“Moon,” curated by Ellen Avril and presented at the Johnson Museum August 25, 2018-January 13, 2019)