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Performing the Jeweled Pagoda Mandalas: Relics,Reliquaries, and a Realm of Text

Halle O'Neal

To cite this article: Halle O'Neal (2015) Performing the Jeweled Pagoda Mandalas:Relics, Reliquaries, and a Realm of Text, The Art Bulletin, 97:3, 279-300, DOI:10.1080/00043079.2015.1009326

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00043079.2015.1009326

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Performing the Jeweled Pagoda Mandalas: Relics,Reliquaries, and a Realm of Text

Halle O’Neal

At first glance, the characters swirl around, haphazard andtiny (Fig. 1–3). Picking out a few familiar words provides tem-porary stability, but a moment later the viewer is lost againin a sea of shining script at once accessible and remote. Nei-ther legible nor completely illegible, these discombobulatingand intriguing characters are specifically alegible. This visionof a luxurious realm constructed of golden text gleamingagainst the deep blue background evokes the idea that theSanskrit letter A begat the world.1 Experiencing these paint-ings known as the jeweled pagoda mandalas (Kinji hoto man-dara) is like entering a state of captivating and, at times,bewildering visions, a world shaped by the artistic union ofindividual words. These mandalas form a category of highlytextual paintings produced during the twelfth and thirteenthcenturies whose inventive format unifies on a single visualplane the written transcription of sacred text with thepainted vignettes of the chosen scripture’s stories. Further-more, by utterly dissolving the distinction between the twomedia in the central icon of the paintings, their combinatorycomposition embodies a new relation between text andimage. Word becomes picture as characters from the sacredscriptures replace architectural line, marking the start of aprogressively more popular visual trend.

Three complete sets, each of eight or ten paintings, of thejeweled pagoda mandalas remain: those from the templeRyuhonji in Kyoto (Fig. 4), Tanzan Shrine in Nara (Fig. 5),and Chusonji, a temple in Hiraizumi (Fig. 6),2 along withthree other mandalas separated from their original sets.3 Onaverage, each painting transcribes two to four chapters of aparticular scripture, either the Lotus Sutra4 or the GoldenLight Sutra,5 into the shape of a pagoda with associated nar-rative vignettes positioned along the sides and bottom of themandala. How exactly these particular religious establish-ments came to transcribe and pictorialize the scriptures inthis format is not known. The origin of this style can betraced back to the earliest related example in China: a tenth-century textual pagoda composed of the Heart Sutra6 butlacking the encircling vignettes.

Previous scholarship has been primarily concerned withthe formal analysis and iconographic study of the narrativevignettes surrounding the central icon. In this regard, themandalas have been successfully and thoroughly expli-cated. By far the most extensive examination of the man-dalas to date has been written by Miya Tsugio.7 He wasthe first to identify possible prototypes in China andKorea. Miya also conducted an illuminating visual study ofthe narrative vignettes surrounding the central pagoda.While quite strong, the scholarship in English on the jew-eled pagoda mandalas is sparse: only Willa Tanabe and

Mimi Yiengpruksawan have discussed the mandalas in anyreal detail. In her book Paintings of the Lotus Sutra, Tanabeconsidered the Tanzan Shrine and Ryuhonji mandalas asexamples of the twelfth-century trend that emphasizednarrative description of sutra content in the art of theLotus Sutra.8 She saw the jeweled pagoda mandalas astransitional works bridging conventional blue and goldillustrated sutras and the pictorial transformation tableaux(Japanese: henso, Chinese: bianxiang), or visualizations ofmiraculous transformations occurring in scripture.9 Yieng-pruksawan examined the Chusonji jeweled pagoda manda-las in Hiraizumi: Buddhist Art and Regional Politics in Twelfth-Century Japan.10 She offers an elegant and contextualizedstudy of the mandalas, interweaving the importance of theGolden Light Sutra to the authoritative aims of the OshuFujiwara and the intimate illustrations of the narrativevignettes that reveal the anxieties of the ruling family.11

However, scholarship in both Japanese and English haslargely neglected the critical role the central pagoda playsin the construction of the paintings’ meaning.In pursuit of this subject, we must, therefore, concentrate

on the superficial, on the craft and design essential to thecreation of elaborate textual images whose central icon is areliquary composed almost entirely of scriptural characters.And through this, we arrive at how the very production of thesurface asks a certain level of engagement from its viewers.The recent revival of attention paid to art’s surface rejoicesin the sometimes beautiful and always compelling artisticqualities of the object and asks not only what it takes toengage the surface but also how such encounters complicatethe putatively straightforward activity of viewing. Approach-ing the jeweled pagoda mandalas from this point of viewexpands our thinking about the demands of viewing as theprogenitor of meaning and complicates the discourse onword and image that often presupposes an ontologicaldivide. Furthermore, because of the lacunae in the recordsconcerning the paintings’ patronage, potential ritualisticfunction, and transferal history between locations, the jew-eled pagoda mandalas are well suited for such a methodologythat finds meaning in the surface.Explorations of the surface, including the transcription of

the textual pagoda and the process of production for suchinnovative and expensive sets of paintings, underscore theinherent performativity of the design and the effects of thaton the viewer. The intertextual community of sutra transcrip-tions from the eleventh through the thirteenth centuriesdemonstrates the broader trend toward more complicatedinteractions of text and image and, through comparison,highlights the augmented roles of the two media in the

mandalas. These complexities of collaboration require a per-formative viewing on the part of the audience that exposestwo fundamental juxtapositions: accessibility and alegibility,and visibility and invisibility. Decoded through experientialengagement, the ultimate indivisibility of word and picture,sutra and pagoda, and relic and reliquary is apprehended asa profound visualization of the multiplicity of the Buddhabody.

Nomenclature and Historical IssuesA short philological discussion is necessary in order toexplore issues of terminology and present the elusive histori-cal circumstances of the paintings. Unfortunately, but notuncommonly, scant textual records remain to cast low lighton the shadowy history of the production and reception ofthe mandalas. And, as is typical of premodern paintings, theextant records exhibit flexible nomenclature.

Ryuhonji’s jeweled pagoda mandalas of the early thir-teenth century capture in eight paintings the twenty-eightchapters of the Lotus Sutra. The earliest textual evidence ofthe Japanese jeweled pagoda mandalas’ existence comes inthe form of an inscription on the back of each of the

Ryuhonji scrolls. These black ink inscriptions document themandalas’ location in Horyuji, a Nara temple, at the time oftheir first recorded restoration in the seventh month of1362.12 However, they illuminate little about the paintings’function and commission. Indeed, since formally and stylisti-cally the paintings correspond to the early thirteenth century,it is uncertain even if Horyuji is the original home of the set.13

In order to continue tracking the paintings, records associ-ated with the temple must be consulted. A list of Horyuji’streasures found in volume nineteen of the mid-fifteenth-cen-tury Taishiden gyokurin sho documents eight Lotus Sutra pago-das (Hokke hatto) housed in a box.14 Slightly later, the recordof temple effects, Horyuji shariden homotsu chumon, still locatesthe mandalas at Horyuji during the inventory checks of 1550and 1591.15 In these two entries, the mandalas carry adescription similar to that in the Taishiden gyokurin sho. Bothentries list them as eight Lotus Sutra pagodas (Hokke nohatto). Based on these findings, it is apparent that Horyujiwas in possession of the mandalas from the mid-fourteenthcentury until the late sixteenth century. Returning to theobjects themselves for information, a later inscription on thepaintings testifies to another restoration in 1681 in Edo

1 Jeweled pagoda mandala, paintingone, detail of the upper sectionshowing transcription of the LotusSutra, 13th century, gold, silver,and slight color on indigo paper.Ryuhonji, Kyoto, and Collection ofNara National Museum (artwork in thepublic domain; photograph providedby Nara National Museum)

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2 Jeweled pagoda mandala, paintingone, detail of the middle sectionshowing transcription of the LotusSutra. Ryuhonji, Kyoto, andCollection of Nara NationalMuseum (artwork in the publicdomain; photograph provided byNara National Museum)

3 Jeweled pagoda mandala, paintingone, detail of the lower section showingtranscription of the Lotus Sutra.Ryuhonji, Kyoto, and Collection ofNara National Museum (artwork in thepublic domain; photograph providedby Nara National Museum)

PERFORMING THE JEWELED PAGODA MANDALAS 281

(modern-day Tokyo), but by this time the paintings hadentered the collection of Ryuhonji, evidenced by thetemple’s name at the end of the inscription. Exactly howRyuhonji came to acquire the paintings is undocumented.Finally, inscriptions on the contemporary boxes currentlystoring the paintings indicate Ryuhonji’s current take on theissue of terminology.16 In titling the paintings Pagoda of LotusSutra Characters in Eight Scrolls (Hokekyo moji no hoto hachijiku),Ryuhonji continues the nomenclatural tradition. Withoutmore evidence of patronage or function, it is difficult to spec-ulate on the precise circumstances of Ryuhonji’s set of paint-ings, or even to say conclusively that they originated in themonastic context.

The Tanzan Shrine version also transcribes the Lotus Sutrainto the jeweled pagoda mandala format,17 but with the addi-tion of two bracketing scriptures—the Innumerable Mean-ings Sutra18 as the prologue and the Contemplationof Samantabhadra Bodhisattva Sutra19 as the epilogue—toform a set of ten mandalas dating from the twelfth century. Atantalizing inscription written in 1655 on the outer lid of thebox containing the paintings ambiguously mentions a tem-ple roughly a third of a mile (half a kilometer) northwest ofTanzan Shrine called Shigaiji.20 The records of TanzanShrine rarely refer to Shigaiji, and when the temple appearsin the literature, it is only in records far closer to the presentday than the twelfth century.21 According to the mid-sixteenth-century A Record of the Deeds of the Monk Zoga atTonomine Temples, Yamato (Washu Tonomineji Zoga shoningyogoki), Shigaiji was founded as a mortuary temple in 1187to honor the Tendai monk Zoga (917–1003), whose devotionto the Lotus Sutra was renowned.22 It is conceivable that theTanzan Shrine’s jeweled pagoda mandala set was commis-sioned for the founding of the temple to memorialize hisdedication to the scripture. If so, that would add a commem-orative function to the paintings and stresses the transfer-ence of merit through the copying of the sutra, the adorningof the body of the Buddha with precious materials, and theconstruction of pagodas—a karmic confluence particular tothis rare type of project. Both the techniques and style of themandalas confirm a late twelfth-century production date.23

The inscriptions on the boxes also reveal that in the mid-sev-enteenth century the paintings were designated as Lotusmandalas (Hokke mandara).24 Such a categorization suggeststhat at this time, the paintings were positioned within thecontext of Buddhist visual narrative traditions, perhaps inline with transformation tableaux, which pictorialized thecontent of the Lotus Sutra in the form of vignettes encirclingthe textual pagoda.Chusonji’s set of ten mandalas, visual translations of the

Golden Light Sutra, were likely commissioned about 1170 byFujiwara Hidehira (d. 1189). But extant documents from thetime of production until the early eighteenth century neglectto mention the paintings. And while little is known concern-ing the patronage of the three sets of jeweled pagoda manda-las in question, the Chusonji version offers the clearest viewof the commission circumstances. During the Oshu Fujiwararule, Hiraizumi rivaled the Kyoto court in artistic commis-sions in terms of precious materials and the sheer scope ofsingle projects. Documents like Petition of the Bunji Era (Bunjino chumon), composed in 1189 for Minamoto Yoritomo(1147–1199) by Chusonji monks, yield a glimpse of twelfth-century Hiraizumi and the extensive building campaigns of thisthree-generation family of northern rulers.25 The Oshu Fuji-wara during this time enjoyed great financial success, which inturn funded expensive and laborious artistic productions,including a center for sutra copying known as Chusonjikyo.26

The rarity of such sumptuous transcription projects like theBuddhist canon composed on blue paper in alternating linesof gold and silver inks commissioned by the patriarch, FujiwaraKiyohira (1056–1128),27 not to mention the many other sutratranscriptions undertaken by the family,28 indicates that copy-ing the scriptures was an important ritual conveying the OshuFujiwara’s political and salvific ambitions.

4 Jeweled pagoda mandala, painting one, illustrating chapters1 and 2 of the Lotus Sutra, 13th century, gold, silver, andslight color on indigo paper, 437/8 £ 23 in. (111.4 £ 58.5 cm).Ryuhonji, Kyoto, and Collection of Nara National Museum(artwork in the public domain; photograph provided by NaraNational Museum)

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In 1170 Fujiwara Hidehira was promoted to the constabu-lary position of General of the North (chinjufu shogun);I agree with Yiengpruksawan and Miya that Hidehira’sappointment to chinju shogun is the most likely occasion forthe production of the mandalas,29 given the Golden LightSutra’s strong message of righteous authoritarian rule.30

Additionally, the ceremony for Hidehira’s surprising eleva-tion took place at the imperial palace during the annualsaishoko, an imperially sanctioned ceremony reaffirming theGolden Light Sutra as guardian of the nation and legitimizerof imperial authority, a symmetry that Yiengpruksawan high-lights as additional confirmation of Hidehira as the patron ofthe Chusonji jeweled pagoda mandalas. Therefore, thesepaintings proclaim the righteous authority of the patron inan avant-garde style.

In 1705, ten black lacquer boxes were gifted to house theChusonji paintings.31 An inscription on the boxes recordsthe early eighteenth-century title: Ten World Jeweled PagodaMandala (Jikkai hoto e mandara).32 In 1968, the JapaneseAgency for Cultural Affairs categorized the paintings as aNational Treasure of Japan and gave them the official appel-lation Konshi chakushoku konkomyosaishookyo kinji hoto mandarazu (a title that translates somewhat awkwardly into English asJeweled Pagoda Mandala of the Golden Light Sutra in Gold Letterswith Polychrome on Blue Paper), establishing the standardizedtitle for this set of paintings.

My decision to use the term “jeweled pagoda mandalas”stems from three considerations. The first is that to use thetitles “pagoda sutra” or “transformation tableaux” risks mini-mizing the complexity of the composition. These mandalasare a far more complicated visual and conceptual affair. Itherefore include the term “mandala,” which is supported bysome of the earliest textual references to the paintings, inorder to acknowledge the composition in its entirety.33 AsElizabeth ten Grotenhuis notes, the categorical fashion ofapplying the term “mandala” to paintings outside the defini-tional sphere of standard Esoteric mandalas began in theearly eleventh century.34 The jeweled pagoda mandalas wereclearly part of this trend.

The second consideration involves my use of the term“pagoda.” The word originates from the early sixteenth-cen-tury Portuguese pagode, a term of uncertain derivation tracedto Dravidian (via Sanskrit) as well as Persian beginnings.35

Despite these etymological issues, “pagoda” has become partof the art historical lexicon for its ability to acknowledge thevisual discrepancies between the towerlike architectural struc-tures of East Asia and the reliquarial mounds of India calledstupas.36 I also use “reliquary” to refer to the central icon ofthe jeweled pagoda mandalas, and in doing so, I intended forthis term to signify the function of the pagoda as an architec-tural reliquary housing the relics of the Buddha. It is a short-hand that stresses the somatic connections of this type ofstructure and is not meant to flatten the multidimensionalityof pagodas, which also served as beacons of Buddhist power,or to visually conflate it with the various smaller types of reli-quaries so popular in Japan during the premodern period.

The third nomenclatural hurdle is the application of“jeweled” or “treasure” pagoda (hoto) to the mandalas, occur-ring for the first time in the early eighteenth century with the

5 Jeweled pagoda mandala, painting one, illustrating chapters1 and 2 of the Lotus Sutra, 12th century, gold, silver, andslight color on indigo paper, 521/2 £ 203/4 in. (133.3 £ 52.8 cm).Tanzan Shrine, Nara, and Collection of Nara National Museum(artwork in the public domain; photograph provided by NaraNational Museum)

PERFORMING THE JEWELED PAGODA MANDALAS 283

inscription on the box housing the Chusonji set. The appella-tion has since been applied with some consistency to both theChusonji and Ryuhonji sets and less frequently to the Tanzan

Shrine set. It is a curious choice to make because a jeweledpagoda typically refers to a specific style of one-storied pagodacharacterized by a rounded core and a four-sided roof with afinial. These pagodas are associated with the eleventh chapterof the Lotus Sutra, in which a past Buddha Prabhutaratna(Japanese: Taho nyorai; Chinese: Duobao rulai) miraculouslyappears in a flying jeweled pagoda during �Sakyamuni’s lectureof the sutra. �Sakyamuni ascends to the pagoda and continuespreaching while seated next to Prabhutaratna.Practically speaking, a one-storied pagoda would not pro-

vide sufficient space for the transcription of the sutras. How-ever, the mandalas of Ryuhonji make a clear reference to thismoment by featuring the double Buddha imagery, which nei-ther the Chusonji nor Tanzan Shrine versions do. The visionof an opened pagoda with one or two seated Buddhaswas perhaps a strong enough allusion to this momentousoccasion to warrant the jeweled pagoda appellation. Anotherpossible explanation is that the central icon of the mandalasmight be considered a jeweled pagoda because of thegolden luminosity of the characters building the body ofthe reliquaries. Pushing this further, these golden appari-tions are actually characters, which are in turn the dharmarelics of the Buddha (or the written teachings of theBuddha venerated as sacred relics), and therefore, inessence treasure. I continue this nomenclatural traditionbecause it has become a standard part of modern art histori-cal writing.

Diagramming the Pagoda

Without intimate knowledge of the design, the exact choreog-raphy of the transcription of text into pagoda can seem impen-etrable. Where does one start? Understanding the exactingconstruction of the reliquary by mapping the textual pagodaof Ryuhonji’s first fascicle (Fig. 4), so chosen because of thepainting’s excellent preservation and clear transcription,forms the foundation crucial for interpreting the manda-las.37 Experiencing the textual acrobatics encourages aperformative viewing and sparks contemplations of theutter indivisibility of word and picture from which the paint-ings make their ultimate statement of signification. Theassociated digital project (available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00043079.2015.1009326) mapping the sequence ofthe text animates the possible transcription process.38

Much of the transcription follows the typical conventionsof Japanese script, moving from right to left and top to bot-tom. From the start, the copyists privilege the accuracy of thepagoda’s shape and inclusion of key architectural compo-nents over the legibility of the scriptural characters. Thepagoda begins with the title and opening passages of thesutra running vertically down the long spine of the finial(Fig. 1). The transcription winds its way down the nine floorsof the reliquary and in general moves from right to left(Figs. 2, 3). It concludes on the bottommost step of the plat-form. Even with this adherence to copying convention, read-ing the characters presents multiple challenges, and intracking the text, the adventurous reader continually experi-ences location and dislocation.Take, for example, the transcription of the complex brack-

eting system supporting the floors of the pagoda and theornamental decorations projecting from the corners of each

6 Jeweled pagoda mandala, painting one, illustrating chapters1 and 2 of the Golden Light Sutra, 12th century, gold, silver,and color on indigo paper, 551/4 £ 211/2 in. (140.2 £ 54.6 cm).Daichojuin of Chusonji, Hiraizumi (artwork in the publicdomain; photograph provided by Chusonji, Hiraizumi)

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roof (Fig. 2). Starting on the right side in the apparatusessupporting the roof, the axes of the textual tail rafters arerealigned horizontally so that the characters rest on theirsides and dangle out into the surrounding blue. The copyiststhen transcribe the bells hanging from the edge of the eaves,including the clapper, adding a sonorous dimension to thevisual. The next string of scripture relocates to a somewhatsurprising position, as the reader must leap over the alreadytranscribed tail rafters and bell in order to reconnect withthe text at the brackets as they move across the pagoda fromright to left. The architecturally accurate three-on-one bracketsystem supporting the roof structure features the fundamen-tal components of the large bearing block, on which thebracket arm rests, and the three smaller bearing blocks atopthe bracket arm. At multiple points in constructing the brack-ets, single characters stand alone in order to function as archi-tectural design rather than as part of a sequence of text. Thetranscription continues across the breadth of the pagodabody, to the three tail rafters sweeping to the left and on theirsides, and finally to the scripted bell waiting to sound.

Throughout the copying of the pagoda, characters arerepeatedly written on their sides, forced into contortions tofit small spaces, and represented as solitary componentsunconnected to the characteristics of a coherent text. Per-haps most challenging are the abrupt switches in directionand leaps about the pagoda to different architectural spots,making it difficult to discover the next string of scripture.Any intrepid viewer who chose to encounter the mandalason such a detailed and intimate level might well be motivatedby a curiosity to solve the word puzzle. And in diagrammingthese maneuvers, it becomes clear that the audience of thejeweled pagoda mandalas was not intended to read large sec-tions of the scripture for content. Confronting the veryuntextlike nature of this highly textual composition solidifiesthe need to consider the type of viewing obliged by such acreative design, along with alternative interpretations of thefunction of scripture in this context and what that can revealabout texts’ premodern condition.

Process of ProductionThe persons responsible for the design of the jeweled pagodamandalas were probably aware of Chinese prototypes in theform of circulated prints of textual pagodas, which, beingmade of paper and ink, have not survived to testify to theirinfluence.39 However, the addition of the narratives seems tobe a uniquely Japanese creation. Certainly in the case of thejeweled pagoda mandalas, extensive planning would havebeen critical, not only in the selection of narrative vignettes40

but also, and especially, in the dramatic transcription of thesutra into a pagoda. Rough sketches mapping out the tran-scription would have been vital to figure out such things asthe appropriate number of lines and the spacing betweenthem as well as the approximate end of the transcription.Because more than one copyist worked on the sets of eight toten paintings,41 these sketches likely served as crucial referen-ces available for frequent consultation. It should be notedthat these sketches did not always ensure complete accuracy.An attempt was made to end each pagoda in the Ryuhonji setwith the last characters of the scripture, followed by theexplanatory attachment indicating the title of the sutra and

the volume number. Scrolls one and two end much asplanned. For the further volumes, the transcription becomesmore complicated. Because volumes three, five, seven, andeight lack the length required to construct the large reli-quary, verses are attached to the conclusion of the last chap-ter, which is then followed by the sutra title and volumenumber.42 Volume four makes do with an abridged title ofthe sutra added to the end of the eleventh chapter.43 Battlingthe opposite transcription challenge, volume six is too longto fit completely, so the remainder is omitted and concludedwith the same formula of sutra title and volume number.44

These adjustments that do not uphold the accuracy of thetext demonstrate the primacy of the pagoda graphic andreinforce the interpretation that the scripture was not meantto be read in its entirety. Instead, such modifications and pic-torial manipulations speak to the wealth of premodernscriptures’ functions beyond the exegetical.Copying itself is by nature an alegible activity, regardless of

the form the final scripture takes. Even in the composition ofconventional sutra scrolls of tidily spaced lines of seventeencharacters, writing and reading for content do not go handin hand.45 While the activity that produced the jeweledpagoda mandalas is fundamentally the same, they retain thealegibility that went into their production. When the charac-ters are viewed individually, they are crisp and clear, but asthe text was not meant to be read synoptically, this legibilitymorphs into alegibility for the greater composition. There-fore, simply casting them as illegible disregards the inherentquality of the characters and the overall purpose of a textthat never sought readability. Of course, the priority of calli-graphed characters often concentrated on the pictorialnature of the written word. Considerations such as balance,spacing, form, weight, and hue of the individual characterscan even preempt the semantic content.46 In this way, thevery appreciation of calligraphy for its aesthetic attributescan cast them as largely alegible, too.The wealth invested in each set dictated careful prepara-

tion and precision of execution to prevent the waste of suchprecious materials as gold and silver inks and rich indigodye, which, although not uncommon in illuminated sutratranscriptions, would nonetheless have imparted the mark ofmaterial value. Even the paper on which the transcriptionwas copied was a valuable commodity. A description of theassembly process of the complicated pagoda and its manycompositional components indicates the scale of skill, labor,and funding required. Given the demands of such a vastcopying project, a traceable pattern based on the preliminarysketches would have ensured consistency of shape and sizeacross all mandalas of a particular set. Close scrutiny of thepaintings identifies grooved marks left by an iron stylus thatsketched out the complete design and provided the copyistsa path for their brush.47

A formal analysis of the three sets of mandalas suggeststhat the pagoda form was executed first in the process of pro-duction. This idea is supported by the entrance of the narra-tive vignette edges into the space of the pagoda, many timesencroaching quite close to the architecture and thus necessi-tating that the pagoda be finalized before the narrativevignettes were completed. Yet in view of the multiple sheetsof paper used in the construction of the large composition,

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contemporaneous production of both the pagoda and narra-tives is possible, with the final touches to the scenes beingadded later, after the sheets were joined. It is also possiblethat the surrounding narratives were not painted until all thepapers of the mandala were joined, although this seemsunlikely, considering the extra care such a sequence wouldrequire. The development and construction of the paintingspoint to a workshop setting where multiple trained paintersof Buddhist subjects and copyists of Buddhist texts executeda consistent style.

Another possible scenario for production can also be con-sidered. Since sketches and predetermined grooves based onthe traceable pattern marked the path for transcription, per-haps the patrons themselves copied the scripture in order toearn karmic merit.48 As multiple sheets of paper were used inthe construction of the large mandalas, the patrons couldhave completed the copying portion of the project, afterwhich the narrative vignettes painted by professional artistswould be attached. Such significant participation frompatrons has precedence. The Tale of Flowering Fortunes (Eigamonogatari), an eleventh-century epic story centered on thelife and career of the powerful regent Fujiwara Michinaga(966–1028), describes an elaborate scene of courtly copying.During a particularly melancholic time in the ninth monthof 1021, the ladies-in-waiting of Empress Kenshi (994–1027)proposed an ambitious transcription project: each of theattendants along with close relatives would produce a sump-tuous scroll dedicated to one chapter of the Lotus Sutra.49

The resulting scrolls were quite extravagant. Some composedthe sutra in gold on a blue background; others incorporatedillustrations either above or below the text or as a frontis-piece. Most of the scrolls were lavishly decorated with theseven treasures (shippo; gold, silver, agate, lapis lazuli, coral,crystal, and pearl), and the sutra rollers and boxes werebejeweled.

Apart from the practical considerations of the surface’sproduction and who exactly brushed these radiant charac-ters, personal and conceptual changes are also at work, forthe jeweled pagoda mandalas depart from conventionalcopying methods. How does this style of transcription alterthe copyists’ relation to the scripture itself? How does thecopyist respond to a reencounter with a section of text thathe has shaped into a finial or spread out to form an eavebracket? For the viewer of the mandalas, the relation to the

text is complicated by its graphic manipulation. Because fewwould have been shown the road map of the pagoda orgranted the amount of time needed to discover it on theirown, the complex assemblage of characters allows the viewersto experience the sutra in their own highly personal ways.

Intertextuality of the Jeweled Pagoda Mandalas

Whether text is uttered aloud, committed to writing, or eveninscribed within the mind,50 its nature and quality haveinspired volumes of philosophical discourse. Clearly, theubiquity of text across cultures and history has made it a con-stant companion, yet the mutable borders of text confoundstrict definitions and challenge interpretations seeking tolimit its breadth. The Japanese jeweled pagoda mandalaswere singular among their contemporaries for their extensiveuse of textual images. But the textualized stage, as it were, wasset for the paintings’ production.The structural divide between text and image in Buddhist

art, which often assigns picture to the frontispiece of thescroll and word to the subsequent lengths, began to breakdown around the time of the mandalas’ production. The fol-lowing examples describe the intertextual scene at the timeof their manufacture in the twelfth and thirteenth centu-ries.51 Scrolls such as the One Character, One Buddha LotusSutra (Ichiji ichibutsu hokekyo, Fig. 7), the section of “TheBodhisattva Wonderful Sound” of the Lotus Sutra, withpagoda decoration (Fig. 8) in the format of One Character,One Jeweled Pagoda Lotus Sutra (Ichiji ichihoto hokekyo),52 andthe segment of “Peaceful Practices,” with canopy and pedes-tal decoration (Fig. 9) in the format of One Character, Canopy,and Lotus Pedestal Lotus Sutra (Ichiji tengai rendai hokekyo) pairthe sacred characters with accompaniments such as adja-cently seated Buddhas, enshrining pagodas, and crowningcanopies and supporting lotus pedestals, thereby bridgingthe chasm between text and image. These scrolls demon-strate a heightened but still limited interaction. Nonethelessthey are particularly relevant to the jeweled pagoda manda-las, in that they, too, visually expound the nonduality of theBuddha and his word, which casts scriptures as dharma relics.The fundamental difference between these scrolls and thejeweled pagoda mandalas is that in the mandalas, the non-duality of the Buddha and his teachings reaches new expres-sive heights by achieving a visual format that mirrors theconceptual indivisibility. This conflated central icon of the

7 Section of One Character, One BuddhaLotus Sutra, 11th century, black ink andcolor on paper, length 70 ft. 65/8 in.(2.12 m). Zentsuji, Zentsuji City(artwork in the public domain;photograph provided by Zentsuji)

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mandalas encourages experiential viewing, whereas thedesigns of the handscrolls do not require performativeengagement.

The twelfth-century Lotus Sutra fans such as those in thetemple collection of Shitennoji in Nara combine the graphicstyles associated with illustrated scrolls like The Tale of GenjiScrolls (Genji monogatari emaki) with the recognizable writingand structural style of typical sutra copies and, in doing so,visualize the interpenetration of sacred writing with imagesof the mundane world (Fig. 10). As Komatsu Shigemiobserves, the fans and related booklets are visual testamentsto the coupling of Heian-period (794–1185) aristocraticbelief in the Lotus Sutra and the pious expression of thatfaith.53 Instead of segregating image from text, scenes ofdaily court life along with visions from the world of com-moners show through from behind the superimposed scrip-ture. Such layering represents a joining of two distinct mediapreviously forced to inhabit different spatial realms of visualculture. Although text and image are combined into onevisual plane of the product—and this on its own constitutesan important marker in the increasingly complicated visualrelation of text and image—word and picture still enact theirown roles and maintain their functional and visual indepen-dence to a large extent.

The Eyeless Sutra (Menashikyo) refers to an intriguingset of sutra scrolls associated with Retired Emperor Gosh-irakawa (1127–1192), wherein scriptural text is copiedover a black ink underdrawing of pictures of interiorcourt life, with the curious exception that most of the fig-ures are left without facial features (Fig. 11). The style ofthe pictures follows typical Heian-period narrative illustra-tions, but the content of the underdrawing has yet to befirmly linked to a particular story. While the exact circum-stances of the scrolls’ production in 1192 remain elu-sive,54 what seems likely is that Goshirakawa died beforethe completion of the picture scroll. As a memorial actintended to grant repose for the departed, the scroll wasleft unfinished and sutra text was copied over the objectclosely related to the emperor, establishing a karmicbond between the deceased and the redemptive powersof the sutras. The interpenetration of word and picture inthis context reveals a commemorative effort.

Increasing collaboration between word and picture is alsoevident in the practice of “reed-hand script” (ashide), a typeof disguised script often found in marshlike landscapeswhere Chinese characters and Japanese phonetic script formsimple images such as rocks, reeds, coastlines, and birds inflight. Komatsu Shigemi provides a rich analysis of the motifsassumed by reed-hand script in his study of the Heike nokyo,an extravagant project featuring thirty-three scrolls transcrib-ing multiple sutras, commissioned in 1164 by Taira Kiyomori(1118–1181) for dedication at Itsukushima Shrine on Miya-jima. He observes that certain phonetic characters were rou-tinely chosen to construct particular and specific picturesbecause their shape lends them naturally to commonforms.55 One finds here the visualization of the world as text,a revelation that the scripture penetrates all manner ofthings. The practice of ashide extended broadly into many dif-ferent formats and contexts of writing. While the scriptcrafted by ashide often could be constructed into meaningfulpassages of sutra text or popular verses of poetry (waka),ashide also had a purely decorative function.One more development in the text and image relations of

early premodern Buddhist painting merits our attention: theempowered inscriptions.56 These emphasize the utter aban-donment of graphic image and the assumption of strictly tex-tualized compositions where word alone paints the picturethat graphic image once captured. The Great Mandala ofNichiren Shonin (1222–1282) exemplifies this phenome-non.57 In the Great Mandala (Fig. 12), text through calli-graphic expression becomes the image. Both celebrated andreviled, Nichiren was a fervent proponent of the Lotus Sutraas the supreme Buddhist authority subsuming all other doc-trines and praxis.58 Nichiren’s advocacy of the Lotus Sutra asthe ultimate authority and the sutra’s emphasis on text andlanguage-oriented practice are reflected in his promotion ofthe sutra’s title (daimoku) as the mantra namu myoho rengekyo(homage to the Lotus Sutra).59 According to Nichiren,the title of the scripture contained within its five charactersthe power to imminently realize buddhahood (sokushinjobutsu).60 In an essay written in 1260, Nichiren responded toa question about the appropriate object of worship for thosewho are dedicated to the Lotus Sutra: “First of all, as to theobject of worship, you may use the eight rolls of the Lotus

8 Section of “The BodhisattvaWonderful Sound,” with pagodadecoration, chapter 24 of the LotusSutra, 1163, gold on indigo-dyed paper,with silver-ruled lines and gold-painteddecoration, 111/4 £ 221/8 in. (28.6 £56.2 cm). Freer Gallery of Art,Smithsonian Institution, Washington,D.C., Gift of Sylvan Barnet and WilliamBurto in honor of Yanagi Takashi andhis sons, Koichi and Koji, F2014.6.3(artwork in the public domain;photograph provided by the FreerGallery of Art)

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Sutra, or a single roll, or one chapter, or you may inscribe thetitle and make it the object of worship.”61 The passagereflects the germinating seed for the Great Mandala, a textualcomposition depicting the venerated title of the scripture incalligraphic script running vertically down the center of thescroll. The names of �Sakyamuni and Prabhutaratna as well asthose of other deities populating the ten realms flank thecentral Lotus Sutra title, calligraphically re-creating theassembly at Vulture Peak, the famed location of �Sakyamuni’sdelivery of the Lotus Sutra.Nichiren’s mandala presents yet another twist in the rela-

tion of text and image. Graphic image, in conventionalizedform, is completely abandoned in the Great Mandala. Wefind no anthropomorphic Buddha figures, no text restruc-tured to create an image. Instead, Nichiren and his followershave fashioned a calligraphic inscription, itself an image ofexceptional fluidity and grace. What emerges after brush hasleft paper is not just written word but a portrait of the infinitesoteriological powers of the Lotus Sutra—in effect, a textualimage. The Great Mandala manifests an increased textualizeddynamic between word and picture. Rather than the cohab-itation of text and image, the Great Mandala displays a com-plete usurpation of picture by text in a realm traditionallydominated by graphic image. Other examples of empoweredinscriptions in which text is privileged occur with increasingfrequency in the fourteenth through nineteenth centuries.62

Inventive collaborations trend toward a greater role of textwithin the visual space of paintings, from the limited foraysseen in the scrolls enshrining each character with a pagoda,to the layering of text on image as in the Lotus Sutra fans, toword masquerading as picture in the Heike nokyo scrolls and,on a much grander scale, the jeweled pagoda mandalas, tothe usurpation of image by text in the Great Mandala. Theintertextuality of the mandalas with earlier and contempo-rary paintings discussed here and between the sets them-selves creates a referential system of emergent, acquired, andsustained understandings about how objects should look andwhat they mean.

Role Reversals of Text and ImageWhile emerging from a coherent copying tradition, the jew-eled pagoda mandalas nevertheless represent the vanguardof innovative text and image interactions in the way that theychallenge the conventional functions associated with theworks’ constituent parts through deliberate role reversals ofword and picture. As demonstrated in the diagramming ofthe pagoda, the sutra text relinquishes its discursive proper-ties. The vignettes must now assume the role of transmittingcontent through graphic visualizations of the scripture’sdidactic episodes.63 However, they are assisted by cartouchesthat do not participate in the role reversals at work in themandalas. The cartouches furnish a clear instance of highlylegible writing in a painting known for its iconic manifesta-tion of text. In the Ryuhonji scrolls, the cartouches are mostlybrief quotations from the Lotus Sutra corresponding to theassociated narrative vignette. Given the sporadic assemblageof the vignettes, preventing an easy, sequential trail, car-touches could serve as helpful signposts. Most scenes areaccompanied by a short cartouche. At their minimal, only afew words are written. In light of their abbreviated nature,

9 Segment of “Peaceful Practices,” with canopy and pedestaldecoration, chapter 14 of the Lotus Sutra, 13th century, ink onpaper with silver and gold, overall 83/4 £ 21/4 in. (22.2 £ 5.7 cm).Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.,Gift of Sylvan Barnet and William Burto, F2014.6.15 (artwork inthe public domain; photograph provided by the Freer Gallery ofArt)

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the cartouches likely worked in tandem with the vignettes inthe communication of content, serving as reminders ratherthan bearing the weight of full narrative expression.64 Manyof the scenes employ preestablished iconography, so the pre-modern viewer would perhaps recognize the scenes. For thevignettes unknown to the viewer, cartouches might give justenough to jog the recollection of the story.

The analysis of a few episodes from the twenty-third chap-ter of the Lotus Sutra, “Former Affairs of the BodhisattvaMedicine King,” as depicted in the seventh scroll of theRyuhonji set (Fig. 13), provides an example of such graphicreading, explaining how the narrative vignettes are read fortheir doctrinal content. The chapter begins by describing theextraordinary devotion of the Medicine King Bodhisattva(Japanese: Yakuo bosatsu; Chinese: Yaowang pusa; Sanskrit:Bhaisajyaraja bodhisattva) to the Lotus Sutra and his promiseto commit self-immolation in gratification.65 The Buddhareconstitutes the Medicine King Bodhisattva, who immedi-ately returns to the presence of the Buddha, bowing in obei-sance and prayer. The Buddha informs the bodhisattva of hisdecision to enter parinirvana, the physical death of the bodyand the passage into nirvana, that same night.

The scene of parinirvana is found in the lower left cornerof the mandala (Fig. 14); this episode illustrates the Buddhalying prone on a raised dais, surrounded and worshipped by

his disciples, heavenly deities, and mythical animals. Thevignette above the parinirvana scene shows the Buddha’sinstructions to the Medicine King Bodhisattva to build84,000 reliquaries for the dissemination of his relics: “‘Aftermy passage into extinction, whatever �sarıra [corporeal relics]there may be I entrust to you also. You are to spread themabout and broadly arrange for offerings to them. You are toerect several thousand stupas.’”66 Following the pictorialillustrations in a clockwise path, the next episode describesthe creation of corporeal relics (Fig. 15): the cremation ofthe Buddha on the funeral pyre. Along the right side of themandala and in the middle of the long, narrow band of picto-rial illustrations are located two more episodes detailing thepast life of the Medicine King Bodhisattva. After completinghis task, the bodhisattva submits his forearms to the firebecause he remains unsatisfied by his donations of the reli-quaries. In the illustration, the Medicine King Bodhisattvaextends his forearms, engulfed in flames, toward three pago-das in a passionate gift of his body (Fig. 16).67 Below thisscene, viewers find the bodhisattva seated in the lotus posi-tion, moments after his offering has been made, with slenderwisps of smoke trailing from his truncated arms. Worshippersgather around his figure, marking the conclusion of the illus-trated scenes from the twenty-third chapter of the LotusSutra.

10 Lotus Sutra fan, 12th century, blackink and color on paper, 101/8 £ 101/8 in.(25.8 £ 25.8 cm) across top and 41/8 in.(10.6 cm) across bottom. Shitennoji,Nara (artwork in the public domain;photograph provided by Shitennoji)

11 Section of Eyeless Sutra of Scripturethat Transcends the Principle, 1192, blackink on paper, 97/8 £ 1773/8 in. (25 £450.5 cm). Dai Tokyu MemorialLibrary, Tokyo (artwork in the publicdomain; photograph provided by DaiTokyu Memorial Library)

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The role assumed by image here is not unlike that of otherBuddhist visual narratives. But in a context where narrativetext is included, it is unusual that so much of the task falls tothe responsibility of visual imagery alone. In order for theviewer to encounter the many parables and episodes withinthe scripture, the design compels the viewer to confront theLotus Sutra tales not through discursive textual examinationbut visually, by decoding the system of signs at work, many ofwhich refer to the particular tale and others that referbeyond it—in effect, by reading the pictures. In this way,image in the form of pictorial vignettes assumes the role ofvisual text.

Yet there is also image in the form of the pagoda, as imag-ined through actual text. And from a distance, the pagodasucceeds in becoming that picture. Such a perspective isfleeting and inevitably ruptured once the viewer draws closer,

for this is no normal text. The sutra jettisons its expositoryrole by virtue of the incredibly small size of the charactersand its structural manipulation into a graphic image. Thetext continues in order, and the copyists take care to avoidtranscription errors, which, when they occur, usually amountto little more than an added or missed character.68 The aleg-ible text is in fact utterly legible, character by character.When choreographing the pagoda’s construction, the copy-ists separated characters that when combined form words,undercutting their semantic function. The choice to down-play the ease of reading by separating these compound char-acters is made despite the freedom of the copyists to extendthe line and maintain the integrity of the word, because even

13 Jeweled pagoda mandala, painting seven, illustratingepisodes from “Former Affairs of the Bodhisattva MedicineKing,” 13th century, gold, silver, and slight color on indigopaper, 433/4 £ 231/8 in. (111 £ 58.7 cm). Ryuhonji, Kyoto, andCollection of Nara National Museum (artwork in the publicdomain; photograph provided by Nara National Museum)

12 Nichiren Shonin, Great Mandala, 1276, gold, silver, ink, andslight colors on paper, 191/4 £ 121/8 in. (49 £ 30.9 cm). Honmanji,Kyoto (artwork in the public domain; photograph provided byKyoto National Museum)

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though the pagoda is roughly symmetrical along the verticalaxis, mirrored lines do not necessarily contain the same num-ber of characters. As a result, while text is sequentially con-nected, copied with few errors, and retains its legibility in afashion, reading the scripture for content becomes infeasi-ble. No longer for exegetical analysis, text instead becomesan artistic device and an emblem of redemptive and soterio-logical power.

The mandalas manifest a further transformation of text:the intensification of the visual properties of word. The scrip-ture of the written reliquary experiences a reversal of the con-ventional role of text, transcending that of typical sutracopies: the textual pagoda becomes graphic image in func-tion and appearance. The jeweled pagoda mandala format isa discovery of text, both in the pagoda and in the narrativevignettes, because nothing remains what it seems: word is pic-ture and picture is word. As Mimi Yiengpruksawan asserts,“doctrine and image at once reinforce and subvert oneanother, and . . . the friction so generated enriches readingsof all Buddhist objects be they words or pictures.”69 As such,it is possible to interpret the role reversals evinced in the jew-eled pagoda mandalas as a subversion of text by image andvice versa. The mandalas expose the intertwined roles of twopreviously distinct media, creating a vacillating, surreptitiousrelation between written word and pictorial image. When thecombined visual effects of the boundary-pushing mandalasare considered, we realize the full consequence of the rolereversals occurring and reoccurring in a single painting andthe rarity of this sort of combinatory composition.

Viewing as Performance

Exploring the mechanics of viewing the mandalas’ surface,that is, the operations performed by the audience as obligedby the design, uncovers the paintings’ inherent performativ-ity, which provides the viewer with the opportunity to experi-entially encounter the multiplicity of the Buddha’s body. Inthe context of Japanese Buddhist art, such an explorationmust contend with the issue of hidden objects. Even if theviewership is restricted to the artisans who made it and apatron with a small circle of intimates, this exclusive audi-ence does not negate the visuality of the object. As discussedabove, the likely audience for these objects at the time of pro-duction would have been the clergy of Shigaiji and Horyuji, ifindeed these were the original temple homes, and membersof the Oshu Fujiwara family and clergy of Chusonji. As thedisplay history of the mandalas is nonexistent, the frequencywith which they were seen is unclear. In the cultural contextof premodern Japan, limited access was the standard; pre-cious works of exquisite production were rarely seen. Yet thisdoes not diminish the intentionality of the design and themeaning extrapolated, nor the careful craftsmanship andthe performativity the surface compels.

Because of their overall size70 and combinations of textual-ity and encircling narrative vignettes, the jeweled pagodamandalas oblige a performance on the part of the viewer.Originally produced as either hanging scrolls or as panels ofa folding screen, the paintings were perhaps meant to beviewed in their entirety. Once unfurled, the large sets of eightor ten paintings would dominate a room in suffusions of blueand gold. From a distance, the viewer does not register the

pagoda’s profound textuality. But these paintings pack a hid-den punch. What appears from afar as inert or slightly fuzzylinework constructing the image of a pagoda deconstructs oncloser examination, vitiating the solidity and continuity ofour initial perception. Indeed, the fuzzy quality hints ofsomething more, beckoning viewers close. With this greaterintimacy, the icon reveals itself to be both pagoda and sutra.The disaggregation of the shape into textual characters fromthe scriptures occurs in multiple steps, announcing theinherent dynamism of the mandala. An overall transforma-tion occurs during the initial approach, in which line dis-solves into tiny, individualized characters forming the bodyof the pagoda, establishing that this central icon is in fact atextual reliquary erected of dharma, or the teachings of theBuddha. On more intimate inspection, the dynamic arrange-ment and twisting movements of the characters emerge asthe eye attempts to trace a line of text, stumbling on charac-ters that flip and turn and dangle over deep blue space. It isat this point that the pagoda relinquishes much of its picto-rial quality and becomes instead lines of character stackedon character: an emergent text. In an oscillating, fluid, and

14 Jeweled pagoda mandala, painting seven, detail showing theparinirvana and stupa construction scenes. Ryuhonji, Kyoto, andCollection of Nara National Museum (artwork in the publicdomain; photograph provided by Nara National Museum)

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wholly inventive transformation, on close scrutiny the imageof the pagoda dissolves into text; when distance is estab-lished, it reemerges as picture.

With paintings of such elaborate and interconnected wordand image forms, viewers must negotiate the viewing experi-ence. Claude Gandelman offers interesting observations onthe function of text within paintings: “Inscriptions can alsobe said to represent the ‘performative’ aspect of the work ofart in the literal meaning of this word; that is they are used todirect the gaze of the observer to specific spots within thepainting and are part of the manipulative strategy of thepainter.”71 Working from the theories of J. L. Austin,72 Gan-delman describes a form of kinetic subversion, meaning thatthe inscriptions cause a perlocutionary effect, which forcesthe viewer to perform some action or confront the paintingsin a prescribed way.73 Text in the jeweled pagoda mandalas ismuch more than inscription. It dominates picture in a newway, thereby requiring something different from the viewer.The particular production of the surface induces a perfor-mance on the part of the audience because seeing and read-ing the visually complex textual image necessitates anexchange of vantage points. The bodily mechanics involvedin experiencing the paintings, which manifest as delving intotext and zooming out to pagoda, are enacted by the viewer’sbody.74 Word and picture, indivisible, become an architextualicon that forces the viewer to both see the pictorial pagodaand nonsynoptically read its textuality. Such a reading isborn of a curiosity that acknowledges the presence of the

text and apprehends the meaning of a few characters or linesbut does not reach a holistic comprehension.Even as the audience is led to see the pagoda as image and

text, the simultaneous vision of the whole of both is precludedby the very conflation of text and image. Seeing the whole ofthe reliquary demands a distance that excludes the ability toread the sutra.75 From the vantage point of several paces fromthe painting, the pagoda stands, nine floors complete withbrackets and bells. Only in stepping closer and leaning in doesthe audience recognize that text is building the pagoda, atwhich point it is impossible to appraise the pagoda as a whole.Such an interchange of distance and proximity performed inviewing the paintings suggests a fluidity between seeing andreading. Through the performance of the viewer’s body, theability to fluctuate between the two realms eventually blursthe distinction of either. The performativity obliged by theman-dalas engenders a rare viewing experience, although notcompletely unique. A comparable example is the miraculouspresence of theBuddha and optical illusionism in the legendaryShadow Cave. According to the lore, �Sakyamuni enteredthe grotto home of a subdued dragon king and leaped into thecave’s wall, all the while continuing to project his image.Because “only those who looked from afar could see him, forclose by he was invisible,”76 seeing the shadow depicted in Chi-nesemurals called for a bodily negotiation between thematerialsurface of the painting and the illusionistic depth engenderedonly by distance. In this way, similar openings and closings ofspace between the object and the viewer are encouraged.

15 Jeweled pagoda mandala, paintingseven, detail showing the cremationscene. Ryuhonji, Kyoto, and Collectionof Nara National Museum (artwork inthe public domain; photographprovided by Nara National Museum)

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Although reading even a brief portion of the jeweledpagoda mandalas’ text is optional, the actions resulting fromthat choice are not. Subtler movements are obligatory; headstilt sharply from right to left while attempting to read sec-tions of the text in which the axis flips horizontally, as occursin all horizontal supporting beams, portions of the platformand railings, and other architectural details. The text itselfcannot be reoriented and read, so viewers must renegotiatetheir position before the painting. Even after a closeness tothe painting is established, the tiny text might still invitethe urge to squint in hopes of sharpening the lines of thecharacters and summoning forth greater legibility. From thisintimate perspective, the viewer might mouth the words of aline of text, accordingly acknowledging the interior voicemarking the orality ever present in text’s materiality.77 Giventhe bodily demands, reading as such would have been lim-ited. The paintings’ very format provokes these subconsciousand conscious bodily performances on the part of the viewer.In this way, the macro and micro motions transcend meremovement. Whereas they are innately flexible and accommo-date an individualized approach unbound by a specificsequence, the movements are the result of the surface’s per-locutionary effect, marking it as a performance.

Two perplexing juxtapositions operate at the heart of thistranscription style. The first is the alegibility of textual char-acters. Despite being clearly written, the characters are persis-tently challenging to read. As previously demonstrated, theunpredictability of a sequence that jumps around to uncon-nected parts of the architecture prevents any easy or directreading. Characters flip their axes of alignment, hang fromroof eaves, and jump over large areas so that the sutra textcan be formed into a complicated shape. Combined with theminuteness of the characters themselves and regardless ofhow discernible the individual characters may be on closescrutiny, this basic feature makes the scripture exceedinglydifficult to read.

The second, elegant juxtaposition is that in the jeweledpagoda mandalas, the invisible constructs the visible. Thealegibility of the text is a necessary condition for the visualgestalt to resolve. The vision of the pagoda depends on theinvisibility of the very properties of text that we associate withits function as an object to be read: mainly, the legibility ofwords and their amenability to semantic interpretation. Thiserasure of function is the very creative force that erects thereliquary. The text rendered invisible from a distance mani-fests not only a vision of a pagoda but also a highly legibleand architecturally accurate reliquary composed of alegiblescript. Indeed, the text itself remains inaccessible in its pro-jection of the pagoda, even though the pagoda is converselymore accessible than most architecturally constructed ver-sions: the doors are open, affording rare access to an interiorsanctum complete with two corporeally rendered Buddhas.Only one, pagoda or sutra, fully manifests in a singlemoment, but the blending of the two summons contempla-tions of indivisibility.

The juxtaposition of the invisible rendering the visible isfurther complicated by the fact that it represents anotherrole reversal of the conventional functions and expectationssurrounding relics and reliquaries. Where once reliquarycontained relic, guarding and hiding it from sight, it is only

through the activation of relic as sutra transcription that thestructure that once housed it is revealed, thereby conflatingthe two. The design’s deeper significance lies in the act ofviewing performed by the audience. Within the paintingsexists a precarious balance of alegible and accessible, of invis-ible and visible, of exclusive and inclusive distance—and thecombination of these defining characteristics is the singularhallmark of the jeweled pagoda mandalas.

IndivisibilityThe jeweled pagoda mandalas, although the product of elab-orate commissions involving great skill, time, and resources,were nonetheless augmented sutra transcription projects inboth function and intention. The mandalas served little

16 Jeweled pagoda mandala, painting seven, detail showing theimmolation offertory scene. Ryuhonji, Kyoto, and Collectionof Nara National Museum (artwork in the public domain;photograph provided by Nara National Museum)

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documented ritualistic function, were probably never themain icon of veneration for long, and were likely displayedinfrequently. Despite this lack of secure ritualistic function,the mandalas, like many other copying projects, were embed-ded in a system of meaning in which the semiotic expressionof sacred word carried its own contextually specific connota-tions and the visual combinations of text and image mani-fested different Buddhist philosophies.

The transcription of sacred text was a ubiquitous practicein the premodern period. It was also an amalgamated one, inwhich the copying of sutra was often not the sole pursuit.Devotees frequently paired sutras with pagodas in a variety ofways.78 In this context, the jeweled pagoda mandalas embodya particularly creative format of sutra transcription: their cen-tral icon carries meaning and marks a new iteration in thelong history of the combination of sutra and pagoda in visualculture, religious practice, and doctrine.79 As many scholarshave discussed, the desire to combine sutras and pagodas inone project stemmed in great part from the benefits derivedfrom the conflation of the two highly meritorious forms ofdevotion. Sutras commanded copying and promised greatrewards for doing so. Komatsu Shigemi calculates that theLotus Sutra accounts for approximately 90 percent of all sur-viving scriptures from the Heian period.80 This is owing inpart to the several instances within the sutra that instruct dev-otees to copy its text and disseminate the dharma, resultingin abundance for the practitioner:

[I]f a good man or good woman shall receive and keep,read and recite, explain, or copy in writing a single phraseof the Scripture of the Dharma Blossom, or otherwise and in avariety of ways make offerings to the scriptural roll withflower perfume, necklaces, powdered incense, perfumedpaste, burned incense, silk banners and canopies, garments,or music or join palms in reverent worship, that person isto be looked up to and exalted by all the worlds, showeredwith offerings fit for a Thus Come One [a Buddha].81

Hence, the redemptive power of the Lotus Sutra is so greatthat to copy or intone even one phrase is to gain the status ofthe Buddha. Ishida Mosaku explains that four merit-generat-ing methods have characterized Buddhism: making banners,constructing pagodas, copying scriptures, and carving sculp-tures.82 Ishida notes that from the Heian period on, attemptswere made to combine some of the four types of activities inone project: banners with the image of a Buddha, sutrasplaced within sculptures, sutra copies of alternating lines ofscript and images of Buddhas, and pagoda-sutras.83 Themerit is thereby doubled, and with only marginal effort andexpense expended compared to the commission of individ-ual projects. Building off Ishida, Miya Tsugio claims that thejeweled pagoda mandalas manifest the meritorious activitiesof building pagodas, copying sutras, and interpretation ofthe dharma.84

Though not alone in their combination of text and reli-quary, the jeweled pagoda mandalas represent a striking solu-tion to the command to construct pagodas and copy sutras.Not only do the mandalas fulfill the injunction to honor,revere, and copy the scriptures, thereby reaping considerablesalvific benefit, they also respect the injunction to erect

pagodas. This perhaps embodies a more economical fulfill-ment of the order to build architectural reliquaries—notalways a financially feasible option. The Lotus Sutra is cele-brated for its unifying perspective on both the cult of thepagoda and the cult of the book, and, as it is the most com-monly used sutra in the jeweled pagoda mandalas format,this rather equitable confirmation of both devotional practi-ces probably did not go unnoticed. At multiple points thesutra proclaims the transcendent value of both devotionalactivities, comparing the merit and rewards so generated andsuggesting a nondual parallel between the two.85 Therefore,we can understand the mandalas as the result of conflatingthe cult of relics and the cult of the books. They reflect amerging of devotional practices on the painted surface thatmirrored the blended religious practices of premodern Japan.But explanations for the central reliquary of the jeweled

pagoda mandalas have yet to venture beyond the conclusionthat the mandalas are simply another incarnation of thislong tradition of combinatory practice based on the merit ofboth constructing pagodas and copying sutras in one unifiedproject. Although this is certainly a sound and secure inter-pretation, I believe that the mandalas embody more than thesearch for the combination of multiple merits in one mani-festation. The mandalas are undoubtedly a transcriptionproject—but they are more than that. They exceed conven-tional transcriptions because of the novel twist of a writtenpagoda and the inclusion of multiple narrative episodes,rather than the single vignette of typical frontispieces. Mostsignificant, the format of the jeweled pagoda mandalas isboth the conveyor of meaning and the meaning itself.Exploring the site of this collusion uncovers Buddhist depthsrevealed only by an analysis of the interaction of the twomedia merged to create a new textual image that is neitherstrictly word nor purely picture.Sutra text as relic originates in the conflation of the Bud-

dha with the dharma or his teachings, becoming known asthe dharmakaya (dharma body; Japanese: hoshin; Chinese:fashen).86 Even in early texts we find evidence of the nondual-ity of the Buddha and the dharma.87 Particularly relevant tothe study at hand are the characterizations by the Lotus Sutraof the equivalence of the Buddha and his teachings.

O Medicine King! Wherever it may be preached, or read,or recited, or written, or whatever place a roll of this scrip-ture may occupy, in all those places one is to erect a stupaof the seven jewels, building it high and wide with impres-sive decoration. There is no need even to lodge �sarıra init, what is the reason? Within it there is already a wholebody of the Thus Come One.88

Again, the scripture equates the sutra with the Buddha, say-ing, “If there is anyone who can hold [the Lotus Sutra], /Then he holds the Buddha body”89 and “if there is a man . . .

who shall look with veneration on a roll of this scripture as ifit were the Buddha himself. . . .”90 The nonduality of the sutraand the body of the Buddha as scriptural text represent theultimate conflation of dharma and relic, constituting thedharma relic category of relic veneration.Pagodas are also embodied monuments. As John S. Strong

has noted, the “apparent functional equivalence of stupa and

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buddha” stems from the conviction that “a stupa ‘is’ the liv-ing buddha.”91 The corporealization of the stupa/pagoda asanother manifestation of the dharmakaya is a consistenttheme across many texts and schools of Buddhism.92 Particu-larly rich are the Esoteric Buddhist conflations of pagodas asthe dharmakaya of the cosmic buddha, Mahavairocana (Japa-nese: Dainichi; Chinese: Dari Rulai).93 Again, the Lotus Sutraproves an important source for understanding the concep-tual mechanics of the mandalas: in the chapter “Apparitionof the Jeweled Stupa,” the Buddha instructs his disciple inthe proper post-parinirvana methods of veneration, saying,“After my passage into extinction, anyone who wishes tomake offerings to my whole body must erect a great stupa.”94

The mechanism revealing the architextual icon in the jew-eled pagoda mandalas is scriptural text. And because scrip-ture is not just recorded teachings but actively partakes inthe essence of the Buddha as a dharma relic, it is no mere sig-nal.95 The central image deconstructs to reveal body buildingbody. Ultimately, the textual pagoda is more than a singleimage of body; the central icon is an embodied projection ofthe somaticity of the Buddha composed of his relics. By clos-ing the gap between reference and referent, the jeweledpagoda mandalas challenge the assumption that only partialsignification is possible. This undifferentiated yoking of sutraand pagoda provides the viewer with a visual path to contem-plations of the multiplicity of Buddha bodies. It is throughthe macro movements of opening and closing the spacebetween the viewer and the object encouraged by the perlo-cutionary effect of the surface that the viewer becomes a cru-cial part of the expressive creation of this somatic profusion.The viewer experientially constitutes the revealing and dis-solving of the bodies into one. Ultimately, through this con-flation, the icon manifests an amalgamated form of theBuddha, including the anthropomorphic appearances of theBuddha seated within the pagoda. The paintings collapse dis-tinction with indivisibility, and the constant slippage ofdharma into sutra and sutra into pagoda escapes rigid dual-ity, and the concepts of body, relic, text, and reliquary areallowed to exist in a dynamic visual relation. Rather thanmerely reinforcing what is already known, these objectsreveal the potential of visualization by mirroring the concep-tual fluidity of these identities in an indivisible format.

In this way, the jeweled pagoda mandalas eschew the per-ceived gulf between word and image.96 According to MichelFoucault, there exists an untraversable and eternal chasmseparating the two. He believes written word and graphicimage run parallel to one another, that what is expressed inwriting cannot be given visual form and simultaneouslyretain the original meaning of the text. The same fracturedcommunication exists when visual form is described by word.The divide prevents full expression of one by the other.97

However, Foucault finds hope in calligrams (pictures com-posed of words), believing that they bring “a text and a shapeas close together as possible” by simultaneously invoking andconflating written and visual modes of communication.98

Foucault writes, “Pursuing its quarry by two paths, the calli-gram sets the most perfect trap. By its double function, itguarantees capture, as neither discourse alone nor a puredrawing could do.”99 Embedded even within his optimisticanalysis of the calligram’s abilities is the assumption of word

and picture’s ontological divide. While a Foucauldian lenscan carry a reading of the jeweled pagoda mandalas furtherby focusing on the indivisibility of the media constructingthe central icon, an analysis of these paintings need notaccept such a break between text and image.Rather than proceed from a presupposition of unbridge-

able distance, the mandalas offer a dynamic bond betweenthe two media that comes closer to a nondual relation result-ing from text’s sacred ontology as relic, and even as worldprogenitor. Sutra therefore constructs the pagoda and illus-trates through indivisibility their fundamental unity as bodiesof the Buddha. Through a Buddhist interpretation of thepaintings, text and image are both icons of body that dependon one another in a visual conflation that challenges anyreading that would attempt to divide them.

Text in Premodern Japan

Having burrowed into the surface to explicate the connec-tions between the indivisibility of word and picture and theperformative viewing that manifests the simultaneous expres-sions of the dharmakaya of the Buddha, telescoping out fromthe jeweled pagoda mandalas to the cultural context ofsacred word in premodern Japan allows us to understandhow such an innovative composition came into existence. Asdemonstrated in the investigations of the role of writtenword in the central icon of the mandalas, text jettisons its dis-cursive function. It ceases to be reading material but, in thisregard, directly corresponds to the openness of sacred text inthe early premodern period. Ultimately, it is the ability oftext to break hermeneutical strictures that enables writtenword to project an embodied icon.The countless explications and manifestations of sacred

word in art, literature, and poetry of premodern Japan sug-gest that scriptures are open texts capable of potentially end-less re-creation and reinterpretation. They necessitateconstant and pious reconstruction, as claimed by Shingonmonk and polymath Kukai (774–835). Ryuichi Ab�e explains:“Kukai approaches the text as a yet-to-be bound—or, per-haps more appropriately, never-to-be bound—constantlyreworked manuscript. For Kukai, the text is not a book but awriting that remains open-ended.”100 The centrality of text’sritualistic performance within Japanese Buddhism is difficultto overemphasize. Indeed, early premodern Japan was pene-trated by textuality. Whether through the Shingon insistenceon the ritualistic performance of both esoteric and exoterictexts to unlock their meanings; the chanting of sutra text ortitle widely popularized by Amidist, Lotus, and Pure Landschools; the enshrining of sacred writings within icons for rit-ualistic vivification; the practice of sutra burials; or the pioustranscription of scripture,101 the enactment of sacred textswas woven into the religious and social fabric of the age.Various techniques of reading and chanting were employed

to access the power of scripture. The particular technique oftendoku, whose general meaning is the vocalization of thesutra but usually refers to briefly chanting the title along withselected lines of scripture, certainly does not involve a sus-tained or deep engagement with the full text of the sutra, butit remains incredibly potent.102 The ritualistic handling ofwritten sutra known as tenpon is an active process that involvesholding the text with both hands and moving it in such a way

PERFORMING THE JEWELED PAGODA MANDALAS 295

that it mimics the flapping of a bird’s wings, three times tothe right, three times to the left, and once more in front.This dynamic treatment usually occurs during chants of thesutra.103 These abbreviated techniques stand in great contrastto the actual reading of scripture for content, known as a“true reading” (shindoku). Flipping through a sacred text,albeit ritualistically, granted the participant great merit. Tex-tual encounters—even fleeting or frivolous ones—had theability to convey tremendous apotropaic and salvific power aswell as to satisfy more earthly ambitions associated with theauthoritative and social value of the texts.

One such example comes from the eighth-century Miracu-lous Episodes of Good and Evil Karmic Effects in the Nation of Japan(Nihonkoku genpo zen’aku ryoiki), in which a devoted reciter ofthe Heart Sutra and copier of other scriptures was sum-moned to the court of King Enma after her death (painlessly,we are assured) so that she might chant sutras before him,allowing him to witness and revel in the beauty of her cele-brated voice. After three days, she is allowed to return to life.She then notices three men in yellow robes standing by thegate, who explain to her that this encounter is not their firstand that at the Nara east market in three days’ time, they willmeet again. It is at the market that the woman purchases twoscrolls of the Brahma Net Sutra and one scroll of the HeartSutra and afterward realizes that these scriptures are in facther own copies made years before on yellow paper. Further-more, she discovers the sutras to be none other than thethree men of yellow robes.104

Sutra transcriptions like the mandalas represent a type ofcopying known as kechienkyo, or sutras that establish kechien, akarmically beneficial connection between the Buddha andthe copyists and patrons. The earliest mention of the termkechienkyo comes from an entry in the diary of the Heian-period courtier Fujiwara Sanesuke (957–1046), in the ninthmonth and tenth day of 1021.105 The term occurs frequentlyafter this point. For example, the Hyakurensho, a thirteenth-century anthology of various records and tales, records thaton the fourth day of the third month in 1142, a ceremony uti-lizing a copy of the Buddhist canon was held at the Byodoinin Uji in order to establish kechien for the benefit of EmperorToba.106 Fabio Rambelli notes that “texts were endowed withall the characteristics of sacred objects,” were “not essentiallydifferent from relics, icons, and talismans,”107 and that “[a]ssoteriological tools. . . .[t]hey acquired a magical and mysticaldimension as sorts of ‘relics’ of past masters (and ultimately,of the Buddha).”108 Sutras were more than just symbols ofthe Buddha’s presence: they were embodiments of theBuddha. Therefore, the commissioning of transcriptions, theornamentation of scriptures, the inclusion of bodily mate-rial,109 and the labors of hand copying were all thought tobuild personal and lasting connections with the numinous-ness of the dharma. Kevin Carr recently articulated the con-cept of iconarratives in his study on the functions of Buddhistvisual narratives. Iconarratives sacrilize space and provide anoutlet for the establishment of karmic connections betweenthe iconized object and the audience.110 Although thegraphic vignettes in the jeweled pagoda mandalas create theoption for visual reading, their presence does not necessarilymean that viewership was always so targeted and interactive.The projection of the somatic multiplicity of the central

pagoda and the visual narratives in the mandalas continue togenerate karmic connective possibilities for audiences as anicon of the Buddha in word and picture.111

Insofar as the very materiality of texts is a signifier, owner-ship of the written word carries great social and authoritativevalue. The ubiquitous practice of shogon, the elaborate adorn-ment of Buddhist ritual objects, stresses the importance ofmateriality.112 Expensive and laborious commissions can sig-nify a desire to manifest not only extreme piety but alsowealth and social prestige. With the jeweled pagoda manda-las, beautifully dyed blue paper furnishes an exquisite back-ground on which golden characters erect the central icon.Narrative images of gold and silver—and bright reds, greens,blues, and yellows, in the case of the Chusonji set—surroundthe dharma reliquary. And, of course, the large size of theindividual mandalas and the scale of the sets as a whole fur-ther augment the projects.The various interpretations and variety of uses of Buddhist

texts reflect their polysemic nature. They were valued fortheir performative qualities and for their material manifesta-tion of the immaterial, the physical expression of which con-stituted various systems of value, from economic to symbolicand religious currency.113 Understanding texts reductivelyonly through their hermeneutic properties ignores the manydimensions of their lives. Moreover, texts create pluralitiesthrough diverse visual expression. As Richard Payne hasnoted, it is impossible to characterize Buddhism as employ-ing just one view of language’s potential.114 It is the pluralityand flexibility of sacred texts that make them distinctivelysuitable for artistic manipulation. Their visual manifestationsreflect established meanings and create new interpretationsof the signified and the nature and plurality of the writtenword. “[E]very reading is always a rewriting,”115 and everyvisual manifestation expounds and explores the possibilitiesof sacred text, opening up new perspectives through theworks’ very materiality.That sacred scripture was not always meant to be consumed

character by character testifies to its diverse functions and val-ues. The purpose of the jeweled pagoda mandalas was realizedin part through the act of copying itself, engendering karmic,material, and social cachet. Scriptures were valued for theirmateriality, their salvific, apotropaic, and prophylactic power,and, indeed, for their sheer presence, which enlivened suchthings as pagodas and sculptures regardless of their visibility.In the jeweled pagoda mandalas, text assumes roles beyondthe borders of exegetical reading; their graphically copiedscriptures expand our relation to text and our interactive expe-riences, inducing new ways of performative engagement. Thesum of such scriptural incarnations is far greater than theirconstitutive parts. They offer a vision of indivisibility that sur-passes doctrinal and ritual manifestations of sutra and pagodaby performing both simultaneously and without ontologicaldistinction, and they therein challenge the presupposed gapbetween word and image. They are visual treatises on thepotentialities of text that challenge all restrictions placed onBuddhist scriptures. After all, text created the world.

Halle O’Neal is a Chancellor’ s Fellow at the University of Edin-burgh. She specializes in Japanese Buddhist art, in particular, theintersections of body, relics, and text in visual culture. She is

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currently completing a manuscript on the jeweled pagoda mandalas[Department of History of Art, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh,EH1 1JZ, halle.o’neal@ed.ac.uk].

AppendixJapanese Characters for Select Terms Given in the Textchinjufu shogun鎮守府将軍

hokekyo moji no hoto hachijiku法華経文字之宝塔八軸

hokekyo nijuhachi bon daiie法華経二十八品大意絵

hokke hatto 法花八塔

hokke no hatto 法花之八塔

hoshin法身

jikkai hoto e mandara十界宝塔絵曼荼羅

kinji hoto mandara金字宝塔曼陀羅

kokerakyo 杮経

konshi chakushoku konkomyosaishookyo kinji hoto mandara zu 紺

紙著色金光明最勝王経金字宝塔曼荼羅図

kyoto 經塔

saishoko 最勝講

NotesI would like to thank Ryuichi Ab�e, Sylvan Barnet, Sherry Fowler, AndrewHom, Melissa McCormick, Tracy Miller, Max Moerman, Fabio Rambelli, andRebecca VanDiver for their insightful comments on an earlier draft of thismanuscript. I am also indebted to the editors and the anonymous readers forThe Art Bulletin for their expert suggestions. Hillary Pedersen’s wonderfulgenerosity and patience in helping me secure image rights were crucial tothe completion of the article. I also would like to thank the Reischauer Insti-tute of Japanese Studies at Harvard University for the time to write this articlewhile on a postdoctoral fellowship and the Department of History of Art andthe Visual Resources Center at Vanderbilt University, in particular, ChrisStrasbaugh, for their assistance in making the associated digital transcriptionproject while I was working there. Finally, I’d also like to thank the EdinburghCollege of Art Research and Knowledge Exchange Fund for generously cover-ing the expenses resulting from copyright and other related fees.

1. For instance, the Flower Garland Sutra (J: Daihoko butsu kegon kyo; C:Dafangguang fo huayan jing; S: Buddhavatamsaka mahavaipulya sutra),in Takakusu Junjiro and Watanabe Kaigyoku, eds., Taisho daizokyo,100 vols. (Tokyo: Taisho Issaikyo Kankokai, 1924–32), no. 278, vol.9, 395a4–788b9 (hereafter T.), visualizes the universe textually. SeeLuis O. G�omez, “The Whole Universe as a Sutra,” in Buddhism inPractice, ed. Donald S. Lopez (Princeton: Princeton University Press,1995), 107–12. This radical concept of language as originating inthe dharmakaya (formless dharma body of the Buddha) institutesa vision of the world as textual conflation: everything is text, soit follows that text constructs everything and is the root of allthings. There exists nothing that is not encapsulated by sacred text,nothing that does not issue forth from it, for differentiation is amatter of semiotic articulation and signification (shabetsu). TheMahavairocana sutra (J: Dainichi kyo; C: Dari jing; in T., no. 848, vol.18, 1a4–55a4) is also used to cast the world as text. See Ryuichi Ab�e,The Weaving of Mantra: Kukai and the Construction of Esoteric BuddhistDiscourse (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), 275–300. Formore on the topic of ajikan (A-syllable contemplation in Tendai andShingon schools of Buddhism), see Cynthea J. Bogel, With a SingleGlance: Buddhist Icon and Early Mikkyo Vision (Seattle: University ofWashington Press, 2009), 199–200; Richard K. Payne, “Ajikan:Ritual and Meditation in the Shingon Tradition,” in Re-Visioning“Kamakura” Buddhism (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1998),219–48; and Pamela D. Winfield, Icons and Iconoclasm in JapaneseBuddhism: Kukai and Dogen on the Art of Enlightenment (Oxford:Oxford University Press, 2013), 81–84.

2. At the time of the jeweled pagoda mandalas’ production, the relationbetween the Kansai region and Hiraizumi was a complicated one. Ratherthan adopting wholesale the Kansai trappings of culture and legitimacy,resulting in the jettisoning of Emishi culture, the Oshu Fujiwara trans-formed Hiraizumi while maintaining traditions and symbols importantto their northern heritage. See Mimi Hall Yiengpruksawan, Hiraizumi:Buddhist Art and Regional Politics in Twelfth-Century Japan (Cambridge,Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center, 1998).

3. Two of the lone mandalas appear to have been originally part of thesame set and, based on stylistic analysis, were likely commissioned dur-ing the late eleventh or early twelfth century. One of the mandalas iscurrently in a private collection, while the other is owned by the templeJoshinji in Shiga Prefecture. For an image of the mandala in a privatecollection, see Kyoto National Museum, ed., Ocho no butsuga to girei: Zen otsukushi bi o tsukusu (Kyoto: Kyoto National Museum, 1998). For animage of the Joshinji mandala, see ibid., 343. The third lone mandala,likely produced in the late twelfth century, is now in the temple collec-tion of Myohoji in the city of Sakai. For an image, see Miya Tsugio,“Myohojizo myohorengekyo kinji hoto mandara ni tsuite,” Bijutsu kenkyu337 (1987): 88–96.

4. J:Myoho renge kyo; C:Miaofa lianhua jing; S: Saddharmapundarıka sutra; inT., no. 262, vol. 9, 1c15–62b1.

5. J: Konkomyo saishoo kyo; C: Jinguangming zuisheng wang jing; S: Suvarnap-rabhasottama raja sutra; in T., no. 665, vol. 16, 403a04–456c25.

6. J: Hannya haramita shingyo; C: Bore boluomiduo xinjing; S: Praj~naparamitahrdaya sutra; in T., no. 251, vol. 8, 848c5–23. For an image of the oldestexample, see Miya Tsugio, Kinji hoto mandara (Tokyo: YoshikawaKobunkan, 1976), 4.

7. Miya, Kinji hoto mandara. Before the publication of his book, Miya wrotea few articles introducing his ideas, which were later incorporated intothe monograph.

8. Willa J. Tanabe, Paintings of the Lotus Sutra (New York: Weatherhill,1988), 98–108.

9. For more on transformation tableaux, see Victor Mair, T’ang Transforma-tion Texts: A Study of the Buddhist Contribution to the Rise of Vernacular Fictionand Drama in China (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1989);Tanabe, Paintings of the Lotus Sutra; Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis, JapaneseMandalas: Representations of Sacred Geography (Honolulu: University ofHawai‘i Press, 1999); Eugene Wang, Shaping the Lotus Sutra: BuddhistVisual Culture in Medieval China (Seattle: University of Washington Press,2005); and Wu Hung, “What Is Bianxiang?—On the Relationshipbetween Dunhuang Art and Dunhuang Literature,” Harvard Journal ofAsiatic Studies 52, no. 1 (1992): 111–92.

10. Yiengpruksawan, Hiraizumi, 161–84.

11. For more studies on the jeweled pagoda mandalas, see IshidaMosaku, “Kokuho saishookyo kyoto mandara,” in Chusonji okagami, 3vols. (Tokyo: Otsuka Kogeisha, 1941), vol. 2, 4–13; Kameda Tsu-tomu, “Jubun saishookyo jikkai hoto mandara,” in Chusonji, ed. Ish-ida Mosaku (Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1959), 68; Hamada Takashi,“Konkomyosaishookyo kinji hoto mandara zu,” in Chusonji, ed.Fujishima Gaijiro (Tokyo: Kawade Shobo Shinsha, 1971), 145–52,261–65; Ariga Yoshitaka, “Konkomyo saishoo kyo zu saiko,” Chusonjibukkyo bunka kenkyujo ronshu 1 (1997): 92–99; Hayashi On,“Daichojuinzo konkomyosaishookyo kinji hoto mandara zuoboegaki,” Bukkyo geijutsu 277 (2004): 81–95; Miya, “Myohojizomyohorengekyo kinji hoto mandara ni tsuite,” 88–96; and IzumiTakeo, “Hokekyo hoto mandara,” Kokka 1169 (1993): 29–38. I havealso provided a more extended analysis of this literature. See HalleO’Neal, “Written Stupa, Painted Sutra: Relationships of Text andImage in the Construction of Meaning in the Japanese Jeweled-Stupa Mandalas” (PhD diss., University of Kansas, 2011), 7–13.

12. For a photograph of one of the inscriptions, see Miya, Kinji hoto man-dara, 90.

13. For a careful analysis of the compositional and painting styles as theypertain to dating, see ibid., 115–16.

14. Kunkai, Horyuji zo son’ ei-bon taishi den gyokurin sho, 3 vols. (Tokyo: Yoshi-kawa Kobunkan, 1978), vol. 3, 456; and Miya, Kinji hoto mandara, 90.

15. Ogino Minahiko, “‘Horyuji shariden homotsu chumon’ narabi ni,‘Horyuji gomado honzon to mokuroku’ ryakkai,” Bijutsu kenkyu 34(1934): 35, 37.

16. For the complete inscriptions on the new boxes, see Nakao Takashi,“Kyoto Ryuhonji no Hokekyo shakyo,” Rissho daigaku bungakubu kenkyukiyo 16 (2000): 5.

17. For an introduction to Tanzan Shrine, see Heibonsha, ed., Nihon rekishichimei taikei, vol. 30 (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1981), 410–11.

18. J:Muryogi kyo; C:Wuliangyi jing; S: Amitartha sutra; in T., no. 276, vol. 9,383b15–89b22.

19. J: Kan Fugen bosatsu gyoho kyo; C: Guan puxian pusa xingfa jing; in T., no.277, vol. 9, 389b26–94b11.

20. See Miya, Kinji hoto mandara, 86 n. 1, for the inscription.

21. Ibid., 85. For a reference to the 1783 passage, see Heibonsha, Nihonrekishi chimei taikei, vol. 30, 411.

22. Hanawa Hokinoichi, ed., Zoku gunsho ruiju 8, no. 214 (Tokyo: ZokuGunsho Ruiju Kanseikai, 2001), 748–51, “Japan Knowledge,” http://japanknowledge.com/lib/display/?lidD91021V160362.

PERFORMING THE JEWELED PAGODA MANDALAS 297

23. For a thorough analysis, see Miya, Kinji hoto mandara, 81–85.

24. For a transcription of the inscription, see ibid., 86 n. 1. As Miya Tsugio(ibid., 39–42) points out, the term “lotus mandala” carries connotationsunrelated to the Tanzan Shrine mandalas. By examining several pre-modern texts, he determines two broad categories of lotus mandalas.The more schematically arranged lotus mandala associated with EsotericBuddhism and often used in the Lotus Sutra rites (hokekyoho) frequentlyfeatures �Sakyamuni and Prabhutaratna sitting side by side within a jew-eled pagoda framed by an eight-petal lotus, a reference to the eleventhchapter of the Lotus Sutra, “Apparition of the Jeweled Pagoda.” Theother category is the narrativization of the twenty-eight chapters of theLotus Sutra (Hokekyo nijuhachi bon daiie, often shortened to daiie). How-ever, if the historical entry is sufficiently ambiguous, as often they are,then it becomes difficult to ascertain whether the “lotus mandala” in thepassage refers to the esotericized version or the transformation tableauxtype; certainty is possible only if the mandala is described visually, or ifthe full categorical title is used for the paintings of the twenty-eightchapters.

25. Kuroita Katsumi, ed., “Bunji no chumon,” in Azuma kagami, in Shinteizoho, kokushi taikei, 58 vols. (Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kobunkan, 1929–64), vol.32, 352–55.

26. Hamada, “Konkomyosaishookyo kinji hoto mandara zu,” 264.

27. The controversial text known as the “Chusonji rakkei kuyo ganmon”mentions the commission of a blue paper Buddhist canon with alternat-ing lines of gold and silver script, which is a reference to the vast scrip-tural project of Kiyohira. Hiraizumi Choshi Hensan Iinkai, ed.,“Chusonji rakkei kuyo ganmon,” in Hiraizumi choshi, 3 vols. (Tokyo:Zoku Gunsho Ruiju Kanseikai, 1985), vol. 1, 59–61. For a discussion ofthe technique of this very unusual style of sutra transcription, see SasakiHosei, “Kingin kosho no tejun to kofu,” in Kenrantaru kyoten, ed. SatoShinji (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1983), 132–34.

28. For example, Kiyohira’s son Fujiwara Motohira (1105–1157) and grand-son Fujiwara Hidehira (1122–1187) continued the practice of elaboratesutra transcription. Motohira commissioned a set of ornate Lotus Sutrascrolls, and Hidehira followed the tradition of his grandfather and ordereda blue and gold Buddhist canon. For more on the artistic commissions ofMotohira and Hidehira, see Yiengpruksawan, Hiraizumi, 89–120.

29. Ibid., 174; and Miya, Kinji hoto mandara, 33, 122. Miya also entertains thepossibility of Motohira as patron.

30. Significant passages are dedicated to extolling the Four Guardian Kings’(J: shitenno; C: sitianwang; S: catur maha rajakayikad) and other tutelarydeities’ protection for those who hold and keep the sutra. Specifically,the twelfth chapter of the sutra in the translation by Yijing, a Chinesemonk who translated Buddhist scriptures, “The Protection of the Nationby the Four Guardian Kings,” details the vast rewards offered to those—in particular, kings and monks—who revere the sutra. The chapterbegins with the promise of protection from encroaching enemies, free-dom from sundry afflictions, and salvation from the bitterness of famineand epidemics for those who follow the Golden Light Sutra (in T., no.665, vol. 16, 427c1–6). The Four Guardian Kings swear an oath to smiteand subdue oppressors and to destroy evil and disease by the greatpower and authority bestowed on them as defenders of the righteousfollowers of the scripture (427c9–28). The promises of such sought-afterblessings often focus on the eradication of enemies, with long passagesof strong rhetoric detailing the utter annihilation of adversaries andtheir lands (427c20–27).

31. Hamada, “Konkomyosaishookyo kinji hoto mandara zu,” 265.Hamada provides a transcription of the early eighteenth-centuryrecord in n. 5.

32. Hamada (ibid., 265) characterizes the “ten worlds (jikkai)” of the title asa reference to the ten levels of the mandalas’ pagoda—including thefirst story’s false or pent roof. Kameda Tsutomu (“Jubun saishookyo jik-kai hoto mandara,” 68) advances a similar argument, explaining that thenine floors plus the pent roof, collectively called jukai, or ten stories,came to be known as jikkai, a phrase he notes is completely unrelated tothe Golden Light Sutra. Presumably, the homonymic quality of thewords is responsible for the transference. However, neither author pro-vides support for this supposition, and, given the lack of textual recordsfor the jeweled pagoda mandalas, perhaps it is equally as possible to sug-gest that the “ten worlds” refers to the ten scrolls of the set rather than tothe ten stories of the pagoda, which is itself an inaccurate count. Taka-hashi Tomio also finds this particular explanation weak and suggestsinstead that jikkai refers to the number of scrolls, culminating in a state-ment about the transformation of all things into the lands of the Bud-dha: one scroll, one pagoda, one world, and, thus, ten scrolls, tenpagodas, and the worlds of the ten directions (J: jippo sekai; C: shifang shi-jie; S; da�sa dig loka dhatu), symbolizing the infinite expanse and all-encompassing nature of the Buddha realm. Takahashi Tomio,“Chusonji to hokekyo: Chusonji konryu no kokoro,” Tohoku daigakukyoyobu kiyo 33 (1981): 39.

33. The Sanskrit word mandala was transliterated into the Chinese termmantuluo and the Japanese term mandara. The term connotes theessence of enlightenment and is often spatially connected to the loca-tion of the Buddha’s spiritual awakening. Esoteric mandalas typicallyconfigure deities according to geometric schemata that render a cosmo-logical map of the realms. However, in Japan the term expanded toinclude a variety of artistic depictions, such as visualizations of sanctifiedspaces like those of the Pure Land paradises and Shinto kami and theirshrines. The term is also applied to images that portray tales from thescriptures. For thorough treatments of Japanese mandalas, see IshidaHisatoyo,Mandara no kenkyu, 2 vols. (Tokyo: Tokyo Bijutsu, 1975); andten Grotenhuis, Japanese Mandalas.

34. Ten Grotenhuis, Japanese Mandalas, 2.

35. For an etymological analysis, see “pagoda, n.,” OED Online, http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/136027?redirectedFromDpagoda&(accessed June 7, 2014). The term does not appear in the 1603 Japanese-Portuguese dictionary Vocabvlario da lingoa de Iapam, compiled by Jesuitsin Nagasaki. For a reproduction of the copy in the Bodleian Library,Oxford, see Iwanami Shoten, ed., Nippo Jisho, Vocabvlario da lingoa deIapam (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1960).

36. “Stupa” has been used as an umbrella term for all Buddhist reliquaries,of which there is a great variety. Xuanzang (602–664), a Chinese Bud-dhist monk whose travels in India were recorded in the Great TangRecords on the Western Regions (Da Tang Xiyuji), advocated for this termi-nological unification. He declared the Chinese term for stupa, sudubo(J: sotoba), to be the accurate term for the architectural reliquaries heencountered. I would like to thank Tracy Miller for pointing this out inher talk “Perfecting the Mountain: On the Morphology of ToweringTemples in East Asia,” for the “Seniors Academics Forum on AncientChinese Architectural History” (December 7–8, 2013) at Kinki Univer-sity, Osaka. For Xuanzang’s passage, see T., no. 2087, vol. 51, 872a23–25.For a concise yet thorough summary of the historical origins of stupasand the word’s etymological derivation, see Kevin Trainor, Relics, Ritual,and Representation in Buddhism: Rematerializing the Sri Lankan TheravadaTradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 32–39.

37. Excluding minor differences, the structure of transcription is markedlyconsistent across all the examples.

38. For a complete map of the pagoda’s composition from sacred charac-ters, refer to the associated digital project that animates the sequentialconstruction, viewable on Taylor & Francis’s Website for the Art Bulletin,at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00043079.2015.1009326. It is also hostedon “Jeweled Pagoda Mandala,” under the Digital Projects tab at www.hal-leoneal.com. This marks the first time the complete sequence of the tex-tual pagoda has been diagrammed and disseminated. Ishida Mosaku(“Kokuho saishookyo kyoto mandara,” 5) gave an early but cursory dia-gram of the Chusonji transcription.

39. For more on the origins of the jeweled pagoda mandala format, seeMiya, Kinji hoto mandara, 1–9; and Halle O’Neal, “Continental Originsand Culture of Copying: An Examination of the Prototypes and Textual-ized Community of the Japanese Jeweled-Stupa Mandalas,” Journal of Ori-ental Studies 22 (2012): 112–32.

40. The differences between the choice of narratives represented in theRyuhonji and Tanzan Shrine sets are likely the result of differing stylisticmodels. The Tanzan Shrine version adheres to earlier styles of visualnarratives in which a larger selection of vignettes is depicted, while theRyuhonji set more closely matches the thirteenth century’s predilectionfor a reduced palette of scenes. See Miya, Kinji hoto mandara, 120–48.This explanation is not to suggest that an argument could not be madefor variations in doctrinal interpretations within the two sets; such anargument, however, is beyond the scope of the current study.

41. Different handwritings seen within the sets provide evidence of multiplecopyists.

42. Miya, Kinji hoto mandara, 91. For a transcription of the verse used, see117 n. 6.

43. Ibid., 91.

44. Ibid.

45. For a discussion of the nebulous origins of the standardized seventeen-character line, see Tanaka Kaido, Shakyo nyumon (Osaka: Sogensha,1971), 52–56.

46. In the case of the jeweled pagoda mandalas, the characters follow sutra-script style. I appreciate Amy McNair’s sharing her calligraphic expertisewith me through repeated email exchanges in which she patiently enter-tained my many questions.

47. Miya, Kinji hoto mandara, 119; and Hamada, “Konkomyosaishookyo kinjihoto mandara zu,” 262.

48. For instance, Ishida Mosaku (“Kokuho saishookyo kyoto mandara,” 4)argues that Fujiwara Hidehira brushed the pagodas of the Chusonjimandalas.

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49. Yamanaka Yutaka, trans., Eiga monogatari, 3 vols. (Tokyo: Shogakkan,1995–98), vol. 2, 233–34. William H. McCullough and Helen CraigMcCullough, trans., A Tale of Flowering Fortunes: Annals of Japanese Aristo-cratic Life in the Heian Period, 2 vols. (Stanford: Stanford University Press,1980), vol. 2, 530–35.

50. For a discussion on the memorization of scripture, see CharlotteEubanks,Miracles of Book and Body: Buddhist Textual Culture & MedievalJapan (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011), 133–72.

51. First coined by Julia Kristeva in the essay “Word, Dialogue, and Novel,”1966 (reprinted in Desire and Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature[New York: Columbia University Press, 1980], 64–91), to describe theinterrelated nature of texts that refer in myriad ways to a multitude ofother texts, intertextuality has taken on a life of its own and can beapplied to studies beyond the textual. In The Archaeology of Knowledge,Michel Foucault presents the idea succinctly: “The frontiers of a bookare never clear-cut: beyond the title, the first lines and the last full stop,beyond its internal configuration and its autonomous form, it is caughtup in a system of references to other books, other texts, other sentences:it is a node within a network. . . . The book is not simply the object thatone holds in one’s hands; it cannot remain within the little parallelepi-ped that contains it: its unity is variable and relative.” Foucault, TheArchaeology of Knowledge, trans. A. M. Sheridan Smith (London: TavistockPublications, 1972), 23.

52. I would like to thank Sylvan Barnet and the late William Burto for theirkind hospitality and inexhaustible expertise during my trips to view theircollection and Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis for making it possible.

53. Komatsu Shigemi, “Hokekyo sasshi ni tsuite,” Museum 81 (1957): 7.

54. As Akiyama Terukazu notes, Komatsu Shigemi suggests that the identityof the nun, sadly obscured by damage to the scroll, could beGoshirakawa’s consort, Takashina Eishi (d. 1216), the Lady of theTango Chamber. See Komatsu Shigemi, “Menashikyo to sono shuhen,”Museum 60 (1956): 24–26. Akiyama also proposes that the Lady Kii couldbe the mystery woman, in light of her strong connections with themonks associated with the scroll’s production and ownership andbecause she is referred to as “Kii the nun” in some documents. SeeAkiyama Terukazu, “Women Painters at the Heian Court,” trans. Mari-beth Graybill, in Flowering in the Shadows: Women in the History of Chineseand Japanese Painting, ed. Marsha Weidner (Honolulu: University ofHawai‘i Press, 1990), 167–70.

55. Komatsu Shigemi, Heike nokyo no kenkyu, 3 vols. (Tokyo: Kodansha,1976), vol. 2, 819–29. For more on the interpretative readings of theashide in this scroll, see Julia Meech-Pekarik, “Disguised Scripts and Hid-den Poems in an Illustrated Heian Sutra: Ashide and Uta-e in the HeikeNogyo,” Archives of Asian Art 31 (1977): 52–78; and Eubanks,Miracles ofBook and Body, 167–71. Illustrations of the scroll can be found in thesepublications.

56. Examples of other empowered inscriptions are the paintings known asmyogo honzon (the name of a Buddha or a powerful verse that is treatedas an icon) and komyo honzon (sacred light inscriptions).

57. For more information on Nichiren, see Jacqueline I. Stone, OriginalEnlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism(Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1999), 239–356.

58. Ibid., 261.

59. Jacqueline I. Stone, “‘Not Mere Written Words’: Perspectives on theLanguage of the Lotus Sutra in Medieval Japan,” in Discourse and Ideologyin Medieval Japanese Buddhism, ed. Richard K. Payne and Taigen DanLeighton (London: Routledge, 2006), 160.

60. Stone, Original Enlightenment, 241.

61. Jacqueline I. Stone, “Chanting the August Title of the Lotus Sutra: Dai-moku Practices in Classical and Medieval Japan,” in Re-Visioning“Kamakura” Buddhism, ed. Richard K. Payne (Honolulu: University ofHawai‘i Press, 1998), 152.

62. Esoteric mandalas composed of Sanskrit characters (Bonji mandara) areworks of important text-image interactions representing the issue ofembodiment bound up with language’s potential. However, these man-dalas are outside the scope of this present study because of the differen-ces in the linguistic systems.

63. For Willa Tanabe’s discussion on this subject, see Paintings of the LotusSutra, 98–108.

64. Miya Tsugio (Kinji hoto mandara, 122) makes a similar observation.

65. Leon Hurvitz, trans., Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma (NewYork: Columbia University Press, 2009), 270; in T., no. 262, vol. 9, 53b4–5. Encouragement for one to commit autocremation can also be foundin Chinese texts, such as the Fanwang jing (The Brahma Net Sutra). Formore on the subject, see James A. Benn, Burning for the Buddha: Self-Immolation in Chinese Buddhism (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press,2007); and Jeremy Yu, Sanctity and Self-Inflicted Violence in Chinese Reli-gions, 1500–1700 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012).

66. Hurvitz, Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma, 272; in T., no.262, vol. 9, 53c14–15.

67. For more information on the gift of the body, see Reiko Ohnuma, Head,Eyes, Flesh, and Blood: Giving Away the Body in Indian Buddhist Literature(New York: Columbia University Press, 2007).

68. Very rarely, the copyists omitted phrases. These are most likely mistakesrather than intentional omissions, as transcription accuracy was para-mount and the deletion of those phrases does not form new meanings.

69. Mimi Hall Yiengpruksawan, “Illuminating the Illuminator: Notes on aVotive Transcription of the Supreme Scripture of Golden Light (Konkomyosaisho okyo),” Versus 83–84 (1999): 116.

70. The average size across the Ryuhonji set is 43 3/4 £ 22 7/8 in. (111 £58 cm). The Tanzan Shrine and Chusonji versions are roughly similar.

71. Claude Gandelman, “By Way of Introduction: Inscriptions as Sub-version,” Visible Language 23, nos. 2–3 (1989): 140.

72. J. L. Austin proposes the concepts of locutionary act, illocutionary act,and perlocutionary act. Austin, How to Do Things with Words (Oxford:Oxford University Press, 1976).

73. Gandelman, “By Way of Introduction,” 146. For Austin’s discussion onperlocutionary acts, see in particular 109–32.

74. I routinely saw people, when viewing the paintings on display, step closeand squint in a physical attempt to see the minuscule text and then stepback to see the pagoda. This bodily engagement was repeated multipletimes.

75. In his analysis of “Duck/Rabbit,” Ernst Gombrich explores issues of per-ception and the fundamental interdependence of shape and interpreta-tion. Gombrich suggests that as viewers, we are incapable of pure seeingwithout the application of intellect, which implies that whether one seesthe text or the architectural reliquary in the jeweled pagoda mandalas isperhaps a matter of attention. Gombrich, Art and Illusion: A Study in thePsychology of Pictorial Representation, 2nd ed. (Princeton: Princeton Uni-versity Press, 2000), 4–6.

76. This quotation from the Sea Sutra (J: Kanbutsu sanmai kaikyo; C: Guanfosanmei haijing; S: Buddha dhyana samadhi sagara sutra; in T., no. 643, vol.15, 645c4–697a10) is a translation by Wang, Shaping the Lotus Sutra, 246.For more on the artist’s response to the Shadow Cave, see ibid., 245–55.

77. Rather than understand the material and oral expression of signs as twogenres without overlap, Ruth Finnegan suggests that written and oralmanifestations are not rigid categories but, often, genres with perme-able borders. Finnegan, Oral Poetry (Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress, 1977), 16–24.

78. Some of the earliest descriptions of this pairing come from intrepid Chi-nese monks. Both Faxian (337–ca. 422) and Xuanzang bear witness intheir travel diaries to the practice of dharma relic stupas. In the textRecord of Buddhist Countries (J: Bukkoku ki; C: Foguoji; in T., no. 2085, vol.51, 859b18–19), Faxian records during his visit to India in 399–414 thatstupas were constructed for the specific purpose of sutra veneration, cre-ating sutra-stupas (J: kyoto; C: jingta). Xuanzang (in T., no. 2087, vol. 51,920a21–26) likewise records the ubiquitous and related practice ofenshrining sutra verses in mini-stupas as dharma relics.

79. Another contemporary example is that of the kokerakyo (strips of wood inthe shape of pagodas with inscriptions of sutra text). The earliest men-tion of kokerakyo comes from the Hyakurensho, a thirteenth-centuryanthology of various records and tales by an unknown compiler. In thetenth month and eleventh day of 1181, the Hyakurensho records thatTaira Shigemori (1138–1179) told Goshirakawa of his dream in whichone thousand volumes of the Heart Sutra were copied onto kokerakyo inorder to pacify the troubled spirits of the war dead. Learning of thisdream, Goshirakawa commissioned twelve barrels of kokerakyo, settingthem adrift on the east and west seas. Kuroita Katsumi, ed., “Hyakurensho,”in Shintei zoho, kokushi taikei, vol. 11, 105; and Tanaka Kaido, Nihon shakyosokan (Kyoto: Shibunkaku, 1974), 28.

80. Komatsu, Heike nokyo no kenkyu, vol. 1, 47.

81. Hurvitz, Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma, 160; in T., no.262, vol. 9, 30c17–21.

82. Ishida Mosaku, “Gangoji gokurakubo hakken no kokerakyo,” in Gangojigokurakubo: Chusei shomin shinko shiryo no kenkyu, ed. Gorai Shigeru(Kyoto: Hozokan, 1964), 229.

83. Ibid.

84. Miya, Kinji hoto mandara, 7.

85. Hurvitz, Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma, 232–36; in T., no.262, vol. 9, 45b–46b.

86. For discussions on the trikaya (three bodies of the Buddha) system, seeNagao Gadjin, “On the Theory of Buddha-body: Buddha-kaya,” trans.Hirano Umeyo, Eastern Buddhist 6 (1973): 25–53; Lewis R. Lancaster,“An Early Mahayana Sermon about the Body of the Buddha and theMaking of Images,” Artibus Asiae 36 (1974): 287–91; idem, “The Oldest

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Mahayana Sutra: Its Significance for the Study of Buddhist Devel-opment,” Eastern Buddhist 8 (1975): 46; and Robert H. Sharf, Coming toTerms with Chinese Buddhism: A Reading of the Treasure Store House (Hono-lulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2002), 100–111.

87. An examination of the occurrences of dharmakaya in early texts revealsthat the uses of the term identified it as the “collection of teachings,” or“body of teachings,” and as the “collection of dharmas,” in which fol-lowers could seek refuge and access to the Buddha and his law after theparinirvana, rather than the highly conceptual body of the trikaya system.Over time, scholarship on the Buddha body doctrine has corrected thetendency in previous studies to nominalize the early uses of dharmakayaand to ignore the plural forms of the term, which had resulted in whatmany scholars have described as an anachronistic reading of dharmakayaas the fully developed transcendental body corresponding to the latertrikaya theory, effectively mischaracterizing the development of the doc-trine as far too consistent and tidy. For more on this issue, see Paul Har-rison, “Is the Dharma-kaya the Real ‘Phantom Body’ of the Buddha?”Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 15, no. 1 (1992):44–94.

88. Hurvitz, Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma, 163; in T., no.262, vol. 9, 31b26–29.

89. Hurvitz, Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma, 176; in T., no.262, vol. 9, 34b12.

90. Hurvitz, Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma, 159; in T., no.262, vol. 9, 30c11–13.

91. John S. Strong, Relics of the Buddha (Princeton: Princeton UniversityPress, 2004), 32.

92. For early Pali, Sanskrit, and Tibetan texts expounding stupas as bodies ofthe Buddha, see Gustav Roth, “Symbolism of the Buddhist Stupa accordingto the Tibetan Version of the Caitya-vibhaga-vinayodbhava-sutra, the San-skrit Treatise Stupa-laksana-karika-vivecana, and a Corresponding Passage inKuladattas Kriyasamgraha,” in The Stupa: Its Religious, Historical and Architec-tural Significance, ed. Anna Libera Dallapiccola, in collaboration with Stepha-nie Zingel-Av�e Lallemant (Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1980), 183–209; and AdrianSnodgrass,The Symbolism of the Stupa (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Southeast AsiaProgram, 1985), 360–77.

93. For more on this topic, see David Gardiner, “Mandala, Mandala on theWall: Variations of Usage in the Shingon School,” Journal of the Interna-tional Association of Buddhist Studies 19, no. 2 (1996): 245–79; and FabioRambelli, A Buddhist Theory of Semiotics (London: Bloomsbury Academic,2013), 56–66, 144–48, 166–67.

94. Hurvitz, Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma, 168; in T., no.262, vol. 9, 32c15–16.

95. For more on the issues of presence and embodiment in icons, relics, andpagodas, see Helmut Brinker, Secrets of the Sacred: Empowering BuddhistImages in Clear, in Code, and in Cache (Seattle: University of WashingtonPress, 2011); Bernard Faure, The Rhetoric of Immediacy: A Critical Critique ofChan/Zen Buddhism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991); JacobN. Kinnard, “The Field of the Buddha’s Presence,” in Embodying theDharma: Buddhist Relic Veneration in Asia, ed. David Germano and KevinTrainor (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2004), 117–43;idem, Imaging Wisdom: Seeing and Knowing in the Art of Indian Buddhism(Richmond, Surrey, U.K.: Curzon Press, 1999), 25–44; Robert H. Sharf,“The Idolization of Enlightenment: On the Mummification of Ch’anMasters in Medieval China,” History of Religions 32, no. 1 (1992): 1–31;idem, “Introduction: Prolegomenon to the Study of Japanese BuddhistIcon,” in Living Images: Japanese Buddhist Icons in Context, ed. Robert H.Sharf and Elizabeth Horton Sharf (Stanford: Stanford University Press,2001), 1–18; and idem, “On the Allure of Buddhist Relics,” Representa-tions 66 (1999): 75–99.

96. For instance, W. J. T. Mitchell characterizes the relation of word andimage as two countries that share a long history of relations but speakdifferent languages. See Mitchell, “Word and Image,” in Critical Terms forArt History, ed. Robert S. Nelson and Richard Shiff (Chicago: University

of Chicago Press, 2003), 53. Ernst Gombrich declares that “statementscannot be translated into images” and that “pictures cannot assert.” SeeGombrich, The Image and the Eye: Further Studies in the Psychology of PictorialRepresentation (Oxford: Phaidon, 1994), 138, 175.

97. Michel Foucault, The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences(New York: Vintage, 1973), 9.

98. Michel Foucault, This Is Not a Pipe, trans. and ed. James Harkness(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983), 20–21. Also relevanthere is Peter Wagner’s use of iconotext, in which words and pictures inter-mingle within a specified framework. See Wagner, Reading Iconotexts:From Swift to the French Revolution (London: Reaktion Books, 1995).

99. Foucault, This Is Not a Pipe, 22.

100. Ab�e, The Weaving of Mantra, 276.

101. This is not an exhaustive list, and the reader will likely be aware of fur-ther examples.

102. Sasaki Kokan, “So no jushika to o no saishika: Bukkyo to osei to nomusubitsuki ni kansuru ichi shiron,” in Kokka to tenno: Tennosei ideo-rogi to shite no bukkyo, ed. Kuroda Toshio (Tokyo: Shujusha, 1987),53. For more on tendoku, see Shimizu Masumi, “Nodoku to nosetsu:Ongei ‘dokyo’ no ryoiki to tenkai,” Ryojin: Kenkyu to shiryo 15 (1997):25–29.

103. Sasaki, “So no jushika to o no saishika,” 52.

104. Kyoko Motomochi Nakamura, trans.,Miraculous Stories from the JapaneseBuddhist Tradition: The Nihon Ryoiki of the Monk Kyokai (Cambridge, Mass.:Harvard University Press, 1973), 186–87; and Keikai, “Nihon Ryoiki,” inNihon koten bungaku zenshu, ed. Nakada Norio, 12 vols. (Tokyo:Shogakkan, 1975), vol. 6, 197–99.

105. This occurs in reference to the transcription and dedication service ofthe Lotus Sutra at Muryoju’in sponsored by Empress Fujiwara Kenshi(994–1027). See Fujiwara Sanesuke, Shoyuki, in Dai nihon kokiroku(Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1971), vol. 6, 46; and Egami Yasushi,“Soshokukyo,” Nihon no bijutsu 278 (1989): 19.

106. Kuroita, “Hyakurensho,” 65.

107. Fabio Rambelli, Buddhist Materiality: A Cultural History of Objects in Japa-nese Buddhism (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2007), 90.

108. Ibid., 96.

109. For instance, this recent article: Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis, “Collapsingthe Distinction between Buddha and Believer: Human Hair in JapaneseEsotericizing Embroideries,” in Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in EastAsia, ed. Charles D. Orzech, Henrik H. Sørenson, and Richard K. Payne(Leiden: Brill, 2011), 876–92.

110. Kevin Carr, “The Material Facts of Ritual: Revisioning MedievalViewing through Material Analysis, Ethnographic Analogy, andArchitectural History,” in A Companion to Asian Art and Architecture,ed. Rebecca M. Brown and Deborah S. Hutton (London: Blackwell,2011), 23–47.

111. I pursue this argument further in my book manuscript by developingwhat I term a “salvific matrix of text and body” to interpret the man-dalas’ combinatory composition.

112. For a brief introduction to shogon with further citations for sources onthe subject, see Andrew M. Watsky, Chikubushima: Deploying the Sacred Artsin Momoyama Japan (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2004), 36.Also see Christian Boehm, The Concept of Danzo: ‘ Sandalwood Images’ inJapanese Buddhist Sculpture of the 8th to 14th Centuries (London: SaffronBooks, EAP, 2012), 107–16.

113. Rambelli, Buddhist Materiality, 88–90.

114. Richard K. Payne, “Awakening and Language: Indic Theories of Lan-guage in the Background of Japanese Esoteric Buddhism,” in Payne andLeighton, Discourse and Ideology in Medieval Japanese Buddhism, 89.

115. Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory: An Introduction (Oxford: Basil Blackwell,1983), 12.

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