奈良時代の「如意輪」観音信仰とその造像―石山寺像を中心に―

It is generally accepted that the two-armed manifestation of Nyoirin Kannon (Cintāmanicakra Avalokiteśvara) was worshipped in the Nara period Japan. Part of the basis for this view lies in the identification of the original icon at Ishiyama-dera, completed in A.D. 763, as Nyoirin Kannon (the present icon dates from late Heian period). However, the only name found in contemporary records for this icon is Kanze Bosatsu, and it is doubtful that this term refers to Nyoirin Kannon. Such being the case, the theory that there was a cult of Nyoirin Kannon in Nara period needs to be questioned as well. The first problem addressed in this article is the identity of the original icon at Ishiyama-dera. In the text of Zuzōshō, an early Kamakura period iconographical compendium, there are two accounts concerning the statue. The first describes the statue as having its right hand in abhāya mudrā, and its left hand in varada mudrā, resting on the knee. The second and later account portrays the statue as holding a lotus with a cintāman邑i (flaming jewel, wishgranting jewel) in its right hand, with its left hand again described as in varada mudrā and resting on the kee. The difference between the two accounts amounts to whether or not the image holds a cintāman邑i-bearing lotus in its right hand. Hence, it is possilble to assume that the original statue lacked the cintāman邑i-bearing lotus, and then later, the lotus and cintāman邑i were added when it came to be regarded as a Nyoirin Kannon. The original Ishiyama-dera statue was not a Nyoirin Kannon, nor indeed any manifestation other than Kannon Bosatsu (Avalokiteśvara). This identification of the icon is supported by the fact that the name Nyoirin Kannon cannot be found in either Saidai-ji shizai-chō (Catalog of Saidai-ji properties) or Tōdai-ji daibutsu-den nishi mandara sayū meibun (Text of the inscriptions on the right and left west mandala of the Tōdai-ji. Great Buddha Hall), two documents where the name should have been recorded, if it had been current in the late eighth century. Second, worship of Nyoirin Kannon in the Nara period was investigated by going through contemporary historical records. It was discovered that there is, in fact, no evidence of a Nyoirin Kannon cult in the eighth century. Texts that previously have been considered as evidence of worship of Nyoirin Kannon are actually concerned with Nyoirin darani (cintāman邑i dhāran邑i), not with evoking a visual image of an esoteric form of Kannon. Moreover, three sutras considered today to pertain to Nyoirin kannon (Chinese translations by Śiks邑 ānanda, Manicinta, and I-Ching) were classified instead as texts about Shō Kannon (Aryā-Avalokiteśvara) by the Japanese monk An'nen in the late ninth century, in his Shō ajari shingon mikkyō burui soroku. The third issue examined in the article is the faith of Rōben, under whose direction the Ishiyama-dera sculpture was made. Rōben was a fervent believer in cintāman邑i, as shown in the fact that the statue of Fukū Kensaku Kannon (Amoghapāśa Avalokiteśvara) in the Tōdai-ji Sangatsudō, also commissioned by Rōben, holds a small cintāman邑i in its hands, although there is no mention of such an object in the sutra. The original icon at Ishiyama-dera may have lacked a cintāman邑i, but it did contain relics (sarīra); significantly, there is evidence that the cintāman邑i and relics were considered as equivalent in the late eighth century. Thus the inclusion of relics inside the Ishiyama-dera statue may be seen as an expression of Rōben's faith in cintāman邑i. However, in the eighth century, cintāman邑i were associated with Shō Kannon (cf. Konkō myō saishōō kyō, Sutra of Golden Light). It was only in the ninth century, with the introduction of Shingon and Tendai esoteric Buddhism, that cintāman邑i came to be regarded as the emblem of Nyoirin Kannon - and that the identity of the Ishiyama-dera icon was established as that deity.