Lotus Sutra with Lotus Pedestal Characters
- Date
-
制作年 AD11
- Title
- コンシキンジイチジレンダイホケキョウジョホン
- Materials, techniques and shape
- 紙本紺紙金泥（字）金切箔（蓮台）金銀泥（見返し）
- Collections
- Century Akao Collection
- Depository
- Institute of Oriental Classics (Shido Bunko) Campus Mita
- Ref. number
- AW-CEN-000120-0000
- 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
- Brown Rectangle Publication Book Font
The Lotus Sutra was so revered that the mere act of holding it was considered to bring personal benefit, which would increase by reading, or “chanting,” the text aloud and further multiply by hand-coping its sacred words. Attaining enlightenment by copying the sutra is prescribed in Volume 4, Chapter 10 “Teacher of the Law”. Furthermore, Volume 5, Chapter 12 “Daivadatta” preaches that women may reach nirvana in their natural form. Such new ideas promptly attracted ardent followers of the Lotus Sutra, especially among the Heian aristocrats. Consequently, they took up sutra copying with feverish enthusiasm. They also believed in holding extravagant Buddhist services, as if to recreate paradise on Earth. The result was numerous copies of richly decorated sutra manuscripts, many of which have survived to this day and are called by the generic name “Decorated Sutras”. The “Lotus Sutra with Lotus Pedestal Characters” is an example of a decorated sutra. The text copied from the Lotus Sutra was created, character by character, with gold foil and complimented by pasted pedestals and circles in the shape of lotus flowers, with the gold mud of the characters and the gilt covering of the petals differing in the amount of gold they contain. The text appears to have lost some of its brilliance due to the oxidization of copper, and compared with other “Lotus Sutras with Lotus Pedestal Characters”, the exhibited sutra copy looks like the work of amateurs. Perhaps the gold work was completed by the inexperienced donors themselves using bamboo spatulas. Nonetheless, it is a good example of how Buddhism spread among the general populace during the latter Heian Period. The flyleaf shows an image of the Bodhisattva. From the writing style of the sutra text, this copy was possibly created toward the end of the Heian Period. Originally, all 28 volumes of the Lotus Sutra were copied, volume by volume, and then compiled into a single edition. (Note that the sutra manuscripts of each volume of the Lotus Sutra were called an “Ipponkyo”.)
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- Title (EN)
- Lotus Sutra with Lotus Pedestal Characters
Physical description
- Weights and quantities
-
Quantity 1巻
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