National Treasures & Important Cultural Properties
of National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan

This text belongs to a set of scriptures known as Kofukuji Eion gukyo (the “Sutras Collected by Eion of Kofuku-ji”). It was named after Priest Eion, the custodian of the sutra repository at Kofuku-ji Temple, who collected this set of the Great Wisdom Sutra (Skt., Mahaprajnaparamita Sutra; J., Daihannyaharamittakyo), which were transcribed from the Tenpyo era (729-49) to the early Heian period (794-1185), in 1233 (Joei 2). Annotations in red (indicating punctuation and pronunciation) and black (for the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese characters) were added during the Kamakura period (1185-1333) to aid in the reading of this sutra. The postscript in this volume provides the name of its copyist and a date of 730 (Tenpyo 2).