Segment of Lotus Sutra Vol.7 (with alternate lines in silver and gold on dark-blue paper)
- Date
-
制作年 AD11
- Title
- コンシキンギンコウショホケキョウマキダイ７ダンカン
- Collections
- Century Akao Collection
- Depository
- Institute of Oriental Classics (Shido Bunko) Campus Mita
- Ref. number
- AW-CEN-000164-0000
- License
- CC BY Images license
- Creditline
-
慶應義塾（センチュリー赤尾コレクション）
- URL
- Classification
- Art
- AI Tagging
- Rectangle Art Font Wood Electric blue
This segment of transcribed sutra is exquisite in beauty. The lines from the Lotus Sutra are written alternately in silver and gold on indigo-dyed paper. The sutra teaches that the Buddhist heaven is adorned with seven jewels, or shippo, which this manuscript tries to represent in the silver and gold ink, as well as in the rulings of silver ink, and the lapis-lazuli-like paper. Priest Ennin’s (794-846) “Record of a Pilgrimage to China in Search of the Law” (Jap. “Nitto Guho Junrei Koki”) records that there were 6000 volumes in the Daizokyo (the entire set of sutra) manuscripts produced at the Five Sacred Mountains (Jp. Godai San) in China and that these were rendered in silver and gold on indigo-dyed paper. From this, we can learn that alternating lines in silver and gold was a practice originally devised in China and brought to Japan during the Nara Period by means of ships that had carried a government convoy to Tang Dynasty China. There are only a few extant sutra manuscripts written in alternating silver and gold ink on blue paper: the “Manuscript of Lotus Sutra Volume 7 in silver and gold on dark-blue paper”, dated 949 and now preserved at Jodoji Temple (Hiroshima Prefecture); the “Manuscript of Lotus Sutra Volume 2 in silver and gold on dark-blue paper”, assumed to have been made during the mid-Heian Period (early 11th c.) and now preserved at the Goto Museum; and the “Manuscript of Lotus Sutra Volume 8 in silver and gold on dark-blue paper”, now preserved at Enryaku-ji Temple. It is noteworthy that all ancient sutra copies using the same technique were limited only to the Lotus Sutra. Priest Saicho (767-822) established Tendai Sect Buddhism by building Enryaku-ji Temple on Mount Hiei, decreeing that the Lotus Sutra should be its principal scripture. Out of this developed religious services, such as lectures on Lotus Sutra 8 Volume s (a lecture series for studying Lotus Sutra Volume 8) and lectures on Lotus Sutra 30 Volumes and Other Sutras (lectures for the 28 sections of the eight-volume Lotus Sutra and two others, namely, the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, often called the Opening Sutra of the Lotus Sutra, and the Sutra of Meditation on the Bodhisattva of Universal Virtue, known as the Closing Sutra of the Lotus Sutra). The teachings from Lotus Sutra Volume 5 Chapter 12, “Devadatta”, declare that women in their natural form can also attain the enlightened state. Such teachings and other new interpretations prompted widespread belief in the Lotus Sutra (Jp. Hokkekyo) among the nobility. In particular, Lotus Sutra Volume 4, which preaches scripture copying as a way of attaining salvation, fed the artistic penchant of the nobility and their desire for reaching the Buddhist heaven in the afterlife, impelling the production of lavishly decorated sutras.Judging by the writing style, the shown segment was likely written during the mid-Heian Period (ca. 10th c.). The transcription is from Chapter 24: “Bodhisattva of Wondrous Sound”. This segment and the one preserved at the aforementioned Goto Museum were once a pair.
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- Title (EN)
- Segment of Lotus Sutra Vol.7 (with alternate lines in silver and gold on dark-blue paper)
Physical description
- Weights and quantities
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Quantity 1幅
- Materials, techniques and shape
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Materials 藍で染めた紺紙に紺泥(金紛とにかわ)銀泥で交互に書写。
- Attachments
- 太巻
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