Important Cultural PropertyEmbroidered Samaya Banners and Brocade Banners

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  • 刺繍三昧耶幡(納入文書九枚付)
  • 17 embroidered banners, 2 brocade banners
  • Embroidered on silk twill Brocade
  • L 54.9-73.5, W 22.1-30.0
  • Kamakura period/13th-14th century
  • Nara National Museum
  • 1186(工251 H)

  These are banners upon which the Sanskrit seed syllable, the symbolic object of the Buddhist deity and a bodhisattva figure are embroidered. These banners vary in size and a total of 17 flags (7 large ones and 10 small ones) have been handed down to the present. Although part of this flag is missing, it comprises a banner head, a banner body with three fields, banner arms, banner legs and a tongue. The banner head made of a yellow twill fabric has embroidery of a swastika on it and a bronze clasp with a ring, on which a number is carved. For the banner body, twill fabric in different colors (brown, yellowish green and light blue) are used for each field, where circles made of a white twill are created and a Sanskrit seed syllable, the symbol object and a bodhisattva figure are embroidered in this order from the top in each of the circles. Circles with the same embroidery designs are also used for the back of the banner.
  The syllable, the symbol and the figure of every banner represents the same bodhisattva and the design of the bodhisattva figure of each banner represents one of 32 deities out of the 37 deities of the Diamond World (the four female-shaped bodhisattvas, the sixteen bodhisattvas, the eight worshipping bodhisattvas and the four sangraha vastus bodhisattvas) and the large banners were for the four female-shaped bodhisattvas and the outer four worshipping bodhisattvas. It is estimated that there were originally 32 flags. While some banners show complication in the design and the order probably due to later repairs, this set of banners is very rare in terms of flag design.
  Inside one banner, a piece of paper upon which “Bugyō Shōkei Saki no Chūnagon Shō-sanmi Fujiwara Ason Takanaga” was written with ink was found. Since Fujiwara no Takanaga (1277–1350) was in office from Genkō 3 (1323) to Shōchū 2 (1325), this work is also valuable as a reference embroidery work in the Kamakura period (1185–1333), the creation period of which can be narrowed down.
  This set of banners was possessed by Hyōzu Taisha Shrine in Yasu City, Shiga Prefecture.

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