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Lot Essay
The sutra is a discourse on the complicated concept of irreversibility from enlightenment. The literal meaning of avaivartikacakra is “the wheel that does not roll back.” In simple terms, this refers to the advanced stage at which a bodhisattva possesses the irreversible certainty of attaining the highest level of enlightenment. The bodhisattva must comprehend the lack of essence of persons and things and have visions that represent undefiled introspection.
The red rectangular seal stamped on the first text sheet indicates that this sutra was one of 5,400 scrolls comprising the complete Buddhist canon, known in Sanskrit as the Tripitaka and in Japanese as the Issaikyo. The Jingoji ryakki (Abbreviated history of Jingoji) records that Retired Emperor Toba (r. 1107-23) sponsored the compendium around 1149, the date that appears on some of the wooden sutra axles in the set. Historians have postulated that Toba intended to dedicate them on his pilgrimage to Kumano Shrine in 1153. After Toba’s death in 1185, his son, the former emperor Goshirakawa (r. 1155-58), presented the scrolls to Jingoji, a temple on Mount Takao northwest of Kyoto, when he moved there after abdicating his throne. In the eighteenth century, 4,722 scrolls were inventoried at Jingoji. In the nineteenth century, hundreds from the set were sold to finance repairs to the temple; others were stolen. 2,317 scrolls of the original set, designated Important Cultural Properties, remain at Jingoji.
As is obvious from the sutra here, the Jingoji Tripitaka exemplifies the highest standard of sutra production in gold and silver ink on colored paper. Gold ink was believed to be emblematic of the radiant light of the Buddha, the silver ruled lines to revere his teachings and the indigo-dyed paper to symbolize a lapis lazuli Buddha world. Transcribing and sponsoring sutras were believed to accrue merit and to enhance one’s chances for rebirth in Buddha’s paradise. Each of the scrolls opens with a frontispiece illustration of the Buddha teaching the Dharma below a frieze of jagged mountains symbolizing Vulture Peak, the ancient site of Rajagaha, present-day Rajgir, Bihar State, India, a favorite retreat of the Historical Buddha Shakyamuni. The sutras are enclosed in indigo-dyed paper wrappers designed with feather-like floral scroll (J. hosoge karakusa) picked out in gold and silver against a silver ground. The wood scroll axles have gilded metal terminals engraved with a fish-roe pattern.
For other manuscripts from the Jingoji Tripitaka that can be viewed online, access Miho Museum; The Art institute of Chicago (accession no. 2008.157); Princeton University Art Museum (y1959.121); The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1975.268.17); and the Minneapolis Institute of Art (2015.79.21). The Minneapolis sutra, in the Mary Griggs Burke Collection at the museum, is published in Miyeko Murase, Japanese Art: Selections from the Mary and Jackson Burke Collection (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1975), p. 42.
The red rectangular seal stamped on the first text sheet indicates that this sutra was one of 5,400 scrolls comprising the complete Buddhist canon, known in Sanskrit as the Tripitaka and in Japanese as the Issaikyo. The Jingoji ryakki (Abbreviated history of Jingoji) records that Retired Emperor Toba (r. 1107-23) sponsored the compendium around 1149, the date that appears on some of the wooden sutra axles in the set. Historians have postulated that Toba intended to dedicate them on his pilgrimage to Kumano Shrine in 1153. After Toba’s death in 1185, his son, the former emperor Goshirakawa (r. 1155-58), presented the scrolls to Jingoji, a temple on Mount Takao northwest of Kyoto, when he moved there after abdicating his throne. In the eighteenth century, 4,722 scrolls were inventoried at Jingoji. In the nineteenth century, hundreds from the set were sold to finance repairs to the temple; others were stolen. 2,317 scrolls of the original set, designated Important Cultural Properties, remain at Jingoji.
As is obvious from the sutra here, the Jingoji Tripitaka exemplifies the highest standard of sutra production in gold and silver ink on colored paper. Gold ink was believed to be emblematic of the radiant light of the Buddha, the silver ruled lines to revere his teachings and the indigo-dyed paper to symbolize a lapis lazuli Buddha world. Transcribing and sponsoring sutras were believed to accrue merit and to enhance one’s chances for rebirth in Buddha’s paradise. Each of the scrolls opens with a frontispiece illustration of the Buddha teaching the Dharma below a frieze of jagged mountains symbolizing Vulture Peak, the ancient site of Rajagaha, present-day Rajgir, Bihar State, India, a favorite retreat of the Historical Buddha Shakyamuni. The sutras are enclosed in indigo-dyed paper wrappers designed with feather-like floral scroll (J. hosoge karakusa) picked out in gold and silver against a silver ground. The wood scroll axles have gilded metal terminals engraved with a fish-roe pattern.
For other manuscripts from the Jingoji Tripitaka that can be viewed online, access Miho Museum; The Art institute of Chicago (accession no. 2008.157); Princeton University Art Museum (y1959.121); The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1975.268.17); and the Minneapolis Institute of Art (2015.79.21). The Minneapolis sutra, in the Mary Griggs Burke Collection at the museum, is published in Miyeko Murase, Japanese Art: Selections from the Mary and Jackson Burke Collection (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1975), p. 42.