The subject painting, known as the Hokke-dō Kompon Mandara as it was originally in the Hokke-dō Hall at the Tōdaiji in Nara, is of high significance in the history of Japanese art as one of the only few existing specimens of Japanese Buddhist painting from the Nara Period. It was brought over to the United States of America in 1884, and is now in the possession of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. It has been introduced by Mr. YASHIRO, Yukio, and Mr. KAMEDA, Tsutomu, has also published a scholarly article on it. Not much is left to discuss about it, but taking the opportunity of its colour reproduction in this journal I give here a summarized report of what I studied about it in Boston. The history of this painting, through the inscription found on its back side written at the time of its repairs in the Late Heian Period, has heretofore been associated with the Tōdaiji Monastery. This theory has been confirmed by a literary source recently discovered by Mr. HORIIKE, Shunshō: it is stated, in a manuscript among the archives of the monastery, that this painting was exhibited at the display of the monastery treasures in 1726; from the same article it is known that the painting had been mounted as a hanging scroll by that time. The subject of this painting is the Buddha Shaka (Śākyamuni) preaching at Gṛdhrakūṭa. It is evident from the viewpoint of its composition that its lower portion is considerably damaged. Its base apparently is hemp cloth, consisting of three sheets of the fabric joined breadthwise. Nearly one third of the entire canvas has been restored on replaced hemp. The base has undergone three major partial replacements, the oldest one being the portion marked “A” which is considered to have been restored at the time of repairs by Chinkai (1091-1152). The painting has been retouched on many spots, by Chinkai as well as by later artists. The only portion among the images which retains the original state is that of a Bodhisattva who shows the upper half of his body with his hands clasped at the rear right of the pedestal of the right-side attendant to the central Buddha. This image has something in common with the Bodhisattvas painted on the pillars in the Octagonal Hall at the Eizan-ji in Nara, but shows a greater resemblance to the images of Bodhisattvas lineengraved on the petals of the lotus pedestal for the Great Buddha statue in the Tōdaiji. Where the colours have come off from the landscape in the background, there are noticed some of the original under-drawing in black ink. The landscape as contoured herein is like the ink landscape on hemp preserved in the Shōsō-in Repository of Imperial Treasures in Nara. Richer in the effect of perspective and three-dimensionality than the paintings of equestrian musicians and hunting scenes on the plectrum-guards of biwa (musical instruments) in the Shōsō-in, it shows a style which is relatively old even among landscapes of the Nara Period. Regarding the age of this painting, Mr. Kameda suggests somewhere after 846, the year in which the annual observance of the Hokke-e ceremony was resumed at the Hokke-dō in Tōdaiji. However, from the fact that the Hokke-e ceremony was observed in 746, and also from the style of the painting which is somewhat older than that of the paintings on the pillars in the Octagonal Hall at the Eizan-ji executed around 764, I am inclined to put its date between these two years, namely 746 and 764.