Researches on the So-called “Shingon-in Mandala,” an Old Ryokai Mandala of the Small Size, Owned by the Toji Monastery, Kyoto

Among the several pairs of Ryōkai Mandala (a set of two graphic hierarchic diagrams of Buddhist divinities, Taizōkai, Garbhadhātu and Kongōkai, Vajradhātu) owned by the Tōji (otherwise known as Kyōōgokokuji) in Kyoto, the subject pair, each consisting of three joined vertical sheets of silk and each measuring 183.5 cm. in height and 163 cm. in width, is the oldest as well as high in artistic value and in fine state of preservation. According to the tradition of the monastery, it was used in esoteric services at the Shingon-in Hall in the Imperial Palace; it therefore is known as “the Shingon-in Maṇḍala.” Because of its unique style and its old age, it is a very important specimen in the history of Japanese art, but thorough studies on it have not yet been made due to various difficult problems involved. The present writer, who has had the opportunity to study it in details, reports the result of his researches and discusses on the problems relating to it. 1) The Ryōkai Mandala Used at the Shingon-in : - The Shingon-in Hall in the Imperial court was established in the year 834 at the application of Priest Kūkai, imitating the T'ang system of maintaining a Buddhist ritual hall in the court. It was the place for the annual esoteric ritual performed during the second week (the eighth to tenth days) of the first month. The ritual was usually presided over by the head priest from the Tōji Monastery, and the object of worship in the ritual was a Ryōkai Maṇḍala. The first mandala used at this hall was a pair of large paintings, each consisting of nine joined sheets of silk, hung on the walls in the building; during the middle of the eleventh century, the mandala pictures were painted on wooden walls in the hall to serve as the setting of the ritual; and in the Nambokucho Period (1338-1392) a pair of silk paintings in the form of hanging scrolls began to be used again. As far as known to date, there is no historical evidence that the subject pair in the Tōji was used at the Shingon-in. 2) The history of the subject pair : - The writer has made detailed researches on literary sources concerning the mandala paintings owned by the Tōji, but has so far failed to find any mention of the subject pair. It appears that the one which is recorded to have originally been in the Sai-in (the building now called Miei-dō) at the Tōji bears the closest resemblance in size and age to the pair under discussion. It is said that the mandala in the Sai-in was loaned to the Ninnaji Monastery during the last quarter of the twelfth century, and had not been returned to the Tōji at least by the middle of the fourteenth century. Considering that the archives of the Tōji in and after the Muromachi Period (fourteenth to sixteenth centuries) are not always exhaustive, however, it is possible that it was given back during the Edo Period (seventeenth to nineteenth centuries), and that the present box for it was made at that time. If such a case is admissible, it is highly probable that the said maṇḍala in the Sai-in is identical with the subject paintings. 3) The inscription on the box : - The box containing the paintings under discussion dates from the Edo Period, but on the back of its cover is an inscription in cinnabar lacquer including a date of the year Shōtai 2 (A. D. 899). The inscription is written on an old wood tablet enbedded in the cover, and its first character appears to have been erased for purpose. This fact has never been noticed heretofore. The calligraphic style of the inscription, as judged by an expert in this field, points to the late eleventh to the twelfth century. It is hardly probable that the inscription found on the cover refers to the paintings contained in the box. Strangely enough, however, its date appears to correspond approximately to the stylistic age of the paintings. The inscription may have been written, or copied from a previous writing, in a later period, but it probably has some connection or other with the subject maṇḍala. 4) Iconographic researches: - The iconographic characteristics of the present maṇḍala are almost perfectly similar to those of other maṇḍalas and iconographic descriptions in scriptures which the writer has studied heretofore, while it contains various minor discrepancies such as, for example, the number of the deities depicted. Maṇḍalas used in the Shingon Sect of esoteric Buddhism (to which the Tōji belongs) can be roughly classified iconographically into three groups. The maṇḍala in our present concern does not belong to any of them, and show an independent type of its own. 5) Stylistic researches: - The present maṇḍdala is characterized by the rounded faces of the deities, their eyebrows in single continued curves, their limbs relatively short and thick, the rigid but powerful drawing in “wire lines” (fine lines of even breadth), the colouring emphasizing the primary colours and bright “shading” (bands of gradating colours along contouring lines), and the g ...