Swastika

There is a nice row of swastikas at head height in Burlington Gardens, behind the Royal Academy. They are carved below a plaque ‘Founded ad MDCCCXXXVI’. (The date refers, not to the Academy, but to the University of London, which had its offices here until 1900.) The architect was James Pennethorne. His swastikas did not derive from India, I think, but from Greek temples he visited in Italy in 1826. Greek buildings often have swastika elements, if only by running together two strips of the key pattern.

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I was thinking about this because of the news that, in prospect of the Olympic Games in 2020, Japan was planning to change the sign for a temple on tourist maps from swastikas to little pagodas. The Japanese symbol is called manji and derives from Chinese writing.