Lot Essay
As the principal text of the Buddhist Tendai sect, the Lotus Sutra was the most influential of all scriptures in Japan at the end of the 12th century, in the late Heian and early Kamakura periods. Its compassionate, joyful message and sensuous imagery held immense religious and aesthetic appeal in Japan in a period colored by the gloomy forebodings of the Mappo, the degenerate third and final Age of the Law. From ancient times, the Muryogikyo (the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings) and the Kanfugen-kyo (the Sutra of Meditation on the Bodhisattva Universal Virtue) have been revered as the preface and epilogue of the 28-chapter Lotus Sutra. Together they are known as the Hokke Sambu, or Threefold Lotus Sutra. Occasionally, as in the present example, the three are joined by the short Heart Sutra.
In order to transcribe all four sutras in one scroll, a professional scribe has written the Chinese texts with 34 miniature characters to a line, the standard number for a so-called saijikyo (miniature-character sutra), a practice documented at least as early as the 10th century. The text is transcribed in academic style in formal or regular script using lustrous gold ink on deep blue paper.
The frontispiece, painted in gold and silver ink, shows the Buddha Shakyamuni seated on a lotus pedestal preaching at the Vulture Peak. The mountain is pictured quite literally above the Buddha. It is typical of such frontispiece illustrations that the Buddha is flanked by monks and bohisattvas seated or kneeling in devotion. As it accompanies a Lotus Sutra, this painting has more narrative content than most such frontispieces. Monks and dignitaries kneel in front of the Buddha, four to either side. In addition, at the lower left corner there is a specific reference to Chapter 2 of the Lotus Sutra, in which it is stated that anyone who cultivates merit by erecting stupas (Buddhist reliquaries) of exquisite materials, or if even children in play gather sand to make stupas, etc., then they will, by the accumulation of these merits, achieve the Buddha path. Here we see three boys seated in worship beside the three tiny gold stupas they have constructed.
This is a luxury production for a wealthy donor. As is typical for this period, the figures and landscape are drawn by an experienced, professional hand in an abbreviated, cursory fashion, but with a delicacy and fluency of line that testifies to a subtle and highly cultivated aesthetic tradition.
In order to transcribe all four sutras in one scroll, a professional scribe has written the Chinese texts with 34 miniature characters to a line, the standard number for a so-called saijikyo (miniature-character sutra), a practice documented at least as early as the 10th century. The text is transcribed in academic style in formal or regular script using lustrous gold ink on deep blue paper.
The frontispiece, painted in gold and silver ink, shows the Buddha Shakyamuni seated on a lotus pedestal preaching at the Vulture Peak. The mountain is pictured quite literally above the Buddha. It is typical of such frontispiece illustrations that the Buddha is flanked by monks and bohisattvas seated or kneeling in devotion. As it accompanies a Lotus Sutra, this painting has more narrative content than most such frontispieces. Monks and dignitaries kneel in front of the Buddha, four to either side. In addition, at the lower left corner there is a specific reference to Chapter 2 of the Lotus Sutra, in which it is stated that anyone who cultivates merit by erecting stupas (Buddhist reliquaries) of exquisite materials, or if even children in play gather sand to make stupas, etc., then they will, by the accumulation of these merits, achieve the Buddha path. Here we see three boys seated in worship beside the three tiny gold stupas they have constructed.
This is a luxury production for a wealthy donor. As is typical for this period, the figures and landscape are drawn by an experienced, professional hand in an abbreviated, cursory fashion, but with a delicacy and fluency of line that testifies to a subtle and highly cultivated aesthetic tradition.