東寺毘沙門天像―羅城門安置説と造立年代に関する考察―（上）

The wooden image of Bishamonten (Vaiśravaņa) in the Toji, Kyoto, (Kyoogokokuji) is known by the name of Tobatsu Bishamonten because of its distinctive form clothed in longsleeved metal chain-link armor and standing with upstretched arms on the Earth God. This Bishamonten figure was designated a National Treasure in 1899, when it was still widely believed to be of Japanese origin. However, when the sculpture was disassembled for conservation in 1954, microscopic analysis of the materials used in the sculpture indicated that it had been carved from Chinese cherry wood and since this determination, the sculpture has been known as a “Chinese sculpture.” This sculpture is mentioned in Tōbōki, a document in the Toji collection from the latter half of the 14th century. The Tōbōki quotes a theory dating from the 12th century which states that this sculpture was originally enshrined in the Rajōmon Gate, the main gate of the capital of Heian-kyō. As a result, recent publications have followed a standard format, giving the same basic information, as follows: This sculpture is said to have been originally enshrined in the top of the Rajōmon Gate of Heian-kyō, but when the Rajōmon gate was destroyed, it was moved to Tōji. This sculpture is of Chinese manufacture; it was carved from Chinese cherry wood (Prunus Wilsnii Koehne). These recent explanations go on to date this sculpture to around the end of the 8th century or the beginning of the 9th century. This determination of the date of the sculpture is purely circumstantial: there is no direct, documentary evidence for such a finding. Similarly, based on the 12th century Rajōmon explanation quoted in Tōbōki , the standard hypothesis presumes that it must have been one of the Japanese Buddhist priests who visited Tang China in the early Heian period (specifically while Heian-kyō was being constructed as the capital) who enshrined this sculpture in the gate. This presumption is based on the history of the Rajōmon, the castle gate of the Heian Castle which is thought to have collapsed and been destroyed in the first half of the Heian period. The authors of these explanatory texts take a tentative approach by couching their statement that the sculpture could have been enshrined in the Rajōmon Gate in such escape-hatch phrases as “it is thought...”. On the other hand, at odds with this prudent attitude, the hypothesis that the sculpture dates from the late 8th or early 9th century has gradually gained status as the accepted theory, without the least bit of further scholarly confirmation of what started out as a very vague dating proposal. The resulting judgment of this sculpture as “representative of Chinese sculpture” is not based on any stylistic comparisons with specific examples of Mid and Late Tang dynasty Buddhist sculpture. In the 20th century, research focusing upon the origin and dating issues of this sculpture have further solidified this standard hypothesis as the sculpture's image in the realm of art history. In recent years there has been a growing conviction that this sculpture was brought to Japan in the late 8th early or 9th century. Some of these new studies focus on societal or philosophical issues— why a figure of Bishamonten would have been enshrined at the top of the main gate during the building of the castle of the new Heian-kyō, for example. Others revolve around the Buddhist priests from China who came to Japan in the early Heian period bringing new sutra texts to the country, including texts which take Bishamonten as the primary deity of worship. As a result, this scholarly trend has gone so far as to suggest names of actual historical figures, such as Kukai and Saicho, as the individual who may have brought the sculpture to Japan. And yet, the only indication that this sculpture was carved in the period when these priests visited Tang China is the scholars' tenuous framework of ideas which notes that the Rajōmon was built at the time that the Heian-kyō capital was built, the historical situation at the time, and the idea that this sculpture was enshrined in the Rajōmon Gate. There are a number of questions that can be raised regarding the basic premises on which the hypothesis is based that the sculpture was carved in the late 8th-early 9th centuries, and that it was brought around that time to Japan around that time. For example, was this sculpture actually enshrined in the Rajōmon Gate? Also, are there any extant examples of sculpture from 8th to 9th century China which can be compared to this work? Simply considering these issues greatly weakens the premises of the established theory and the more recent expansions of the basic theory which have been proposed. This article first organizes and reiterates the various theories and related historical materials which date from the Late Heian period to the present. In the process, the various issues concerning the diverse concepts assigned to this sculpture are indica ...