Japanese Mandalas: Representations of Sacred Geography

252 Pages·1998·11.213 MB·English

by  Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis

' ' " v—
R e p r e s e n t a t i o n s o f
S a c r e d G e o g r a p h y
Japanese Mandalas
■j«lac
wmm
¡i
\* rï/f?.
Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis
Japanese Mandaias
R e p r e s e n t a t i o n s of
S a c r e d G e o g r a p h y
U niversity of H aw ai‘i Press Honolulu
© 1999 University of Hawai'i Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
04 03 02 01 00 99 54321
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ten Grotenhuis, Elizabeth.
Japanese mandalas : representations of sacred geography / Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 0-8248-2000-2 (cloth : alk. paper). — isbn 0-8248-2081-9 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Mandala (Buddhism) 2. Buddhist art and symbolism—Japan. I. Title.
BQ5125.M3T46 1999
294.3437 — dc2i 98-24304
CIP
Frontispiece: Detail of Shokai Mandara. Edo period, dated 1726; gold and silver on dark blue silk;
hanging scroll. Shokoji, Kyoto.
University of Hawai'i Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for
permanence and durability ot the Council on Library Resources
Book design by Diane Gleba Hall
For Merton, Cecily, and Elspetb, with love and thanks
Contents
ix Preface
1 Introduction
13 Chapter 1 The Taima Mandara
33 Chapter 2 The Diamond World Mandala
58 Chapter 3 The Womb World Mandala
7S Chapter 4 The Mandala of the Two Worlds in Japan
96 Chapter 5 Mandalas of Individual Deities
122 Chapter 6 Pure Land Mandara in Japan
142 Chapter 7 The Kami'Worshiping Tradition: Kasuga
163 Chapter 8 The Kami'Worshiping Tradition: Kumano
183 Afterword
185 Appendix Chronologies for East Asia
187 Notes
207 Selected Bibliography
215 Index
Color plates follow page 118
T
reface
Although I have been studying mandalas for many years, Nobuyoshi Yamabe, and Mimi Yiengpruksawan. Elsie
I did not begin writing this book until the academic Mitchell provided much-appreciated support and advice.
year 1993-1994, when I was a junior fellow in the Boston Thanks also to Professor Donohashi Akio and Izumi Takeo
University Humanities Foundation Society of Fellows. I first for their guidance and to Linda Z. Ardrey for her excellent
presented some of the basic ideas in December 1993 at a diagrams and drawings. Arleen Arzigian helped with the
Humanities Foundation meeting. I then presented an en­ presentation of visual material, Geri Malendra provided
larged version of that paper in March 1994 at a McMaster photographs of Ellora, and Frances Altvater helped prepare
University conference, “The Japanese Buddhist Icon in Its the bibliography. Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt provided the
Monastic Context.” I am grateful to the participants in these photograph that appears as Figure 35, and Stephen Sylvester
meetings for their stimulating questions. In the summer of and Robert Zinck of the Imaging Services at Harvard Uni­
1994 Boston University supported my travel to Dunhuang, versity were extremely helpful in the final stages of prepar­
where I was able to engage in essential fieldwork. In the ing photographs and details of photographs for publication.
summer of 1995 the Taniguchi Foundation supported my The anonymous readers at the University of Hawai'i Press
travel to Japan, where I spent fruitful days doing research offered valuable suggestions, as did Patricia Crosby and Vir­
at Kumano. The Metropolitan Center for Far Eastern Art ginia Wageman, gentle but firm editors both.
Studies has helped support my research and also contributed Closer to home, I thank Anne and John Keuper, Peter
to the photographic expenses incurred during the publica­ Flemings, and Daniela Gadamska for their support. My hus­
tion of this book. I am grateful to all these institutions. band, Merton Flemings, and our two daughters, Cecily and
I am also grateful to the many individuals who have Elspeth, were untiringly loving and encouraging.
helped me shape this book. Professors John Rosenfield, Masa-
toshi Nagatomi, and Yanagisawa Taka, longtime advisors Throughout the text I have favored the Japanese rather than
and friends, continued to listen and to discuss ideas. Col­ the Sanskrit or Chinese equivalents of Buddhist names and
leagues and friends—many people are both—read parts or terms. Thus I talk of Amida, rather than Amitabha or
all of the manuscript and offered valuable suggestions. Amitofo. The one major exception to this rule is the name
Thanks to Ryuichi Abe, Stanley Abe, Qianshen Bai, Sylvan of the historical buddha, which I have given as “Sakyamuni”
Barnet, Monica Bethe, William Burto, Susan Bush, Chris­ throughout and not as “Shaka,” since the original Sanskrit is
tine Guthjill Hornor, Laura Kaufman, Deborah Klimburg- so widely known. The names of texts that originally appeared
Salter, Livia Kohn, David (Max) Moerman, Jonathan Silk, in Chinese in the East Asian context, for example, the Kan-
« ix »
muryôjukyô (C. Guanwuliangshoujing), but that I have read in, for example, the dramatic legend recounted in the Visu­
in Japanese or that I discuss from the standpoint of Japanese alization Sutra and the related sites are in Sanskrit—thus,
Buddhism andjapanese Buddhist art, have been rendered in Queen Vaidehl and King Bimbisara, who live in Magadha.
Japanese as well. I have included appropriate equivalences It is sometimes difficult to know whether to use the Asian
where names and terms first appear. When it has been pos­ word order for names of authors or the Western word order.
sible, I have used the English nomenclature more frequently In the notes and bibliography I have cited names in the order
than the Japanese, Chinese, or Sanskrit terms, for example, they are given on the title page of the publication.
Visualization Sutra rather than Kanmuryôjukyô. I take full responsibility for the choices I have made con­
I have, however, preferred to use the original languages cerning the organization and presentation of the material in
for the proper names of historical personages and for loca­ this book, and I apologize if any reader is offended. Like Nick
tions. Thus, the Chinese patriarch is "Shandao” rather than Bottom presenting his play at the Athenian court in the last
the Japanese rendering "Zendo”; similarly, the caves in China act of A Midsummer’s Night Dream, let me say, “If we offend,
are “Dunhuang” rather than “Tonkô.”The Indian participants it is with our good will."
J a p a n ese M a n d a la s
« x »
Introduction
The seeds of the banyan tree often germinate in the figurations. These connections enhance the potency of the
branches of other trees where birds have dropped them. outwardly disparate forms and testify to the reciprocal devel­
The young banyan sends out aerial shoots that take root opment of these pictures of sacred realms. Many Japanese
upon reaching the ground, forming trunks to support broad, mandalas display a complex mixture of Indian Buddhist ele­
horizontal limbs. Branches of those limbs continue to put ments, pre-Buddhist Chinese elements, Chinese Buddhist
forth more prop roots until the host tree is obscured, even elements, and indigenous Japanese elements. Their appear­
crowded out. The banyan is admired in India, and elsewhere ances relate to the ways in which succeeding generations of
in Asia, because it is so powerful. thinkers appropriated and transformed elements according
The spread of the Buddhist mandala from India to Japan to changing cultural and religious inclinations. Japanese
can be likened to the spread of the banyan tree. Many mandalas have developed by activating, transforming, some­
Japanese mandalas—interpreted broadly as representations times obscuring, but always by interrelating with their past
of sanctified realms where identification between the human origins. In this book I attempt to explain why Japanese man­
and the sacred occurs—are based on Buddhist doctrines dalas look the way they do and how certain visual forms
originally brought from India to China. Those doctrines came to embody the sacred.1 This exploration of Japanese
germinated and took root, nurtured by elements in the Chi­ mandalas, chiefly iconological, also chronicles an intermin­
nese (host) culture. Eventually, through the process of new gling of visual, doctrinal, ritual, and literary elements that is
organic growth, the doctrines and their visual represen­ characteristic of the Japanese religious tradition as a whole.
tations could no longer be readily identified with either the As an art historian, my primary interest is visual material.
original seeds that had germinated or the host culture. The My assumption is that visual material often yields insights
process occurred again when Chinese Buddhist mandalas, not attainable through textual analysis alone.
introduced into Japan, helped inspire new mandalic forms In Esoteric Buddhist usage, the word “mandala” usually
that have no apparent parallels on the Asian continent. indicates a circular or square configuration, with a center
In this book I investigate certain paradigmatic mandalas that radiates outward into compartmentalized areas. The
from the Japanese Esoteric Buddhist, Pure Land Buddhist, deity at the center of the configuration, who signifies ab­
and kami-worshiping (Shinto) traditions. At first glance, solute truth, engages in reciprocal interactions with figures
these pictorial images seem very different. Looking more in the outer precincts, who signify manifested aspects of
closely, we can see meaningful interrelations among the con­ that truth. A practitioner, visualizing and meditating on the
« l »