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

　　It is known from the Shoso-in documents that there were many copied sutras using gold ink in the Nara period (710–794). Many of them seem to have been written on purple-dyed paper and manuscripts such as the Golden Light of the Most Victorious Kings Sutra, Flower Garland Sutra, Lotus Sutra, The Sutra of Infinite Life and Sutras about Maitreya that were copied in that style can be seen in the documents stored there. Unlike manuscripts on purple-dyed paper with silver paint (gindei) or on navy-dyed paper with gold paint (kindei), the combination of purple-dyed paper and gold letters was not always used. However, considering that the gold-lettered copies of sutras on purple-dyed paper were rarely created, while a great number of gold-lettered copies of sutras on navy-dyed paper were created in the Heian period (794–1185), the gold-lettered copies of sutras on purple-dyed paper are said to be decorative sutra manuscripts specific to the Nara period.
　　In this volume, very thin rule marks are drawn with silver paint on purple-dyed paper and the sutra is transcribed with gold paint. This is Eighty Volumes of Flower Garland Sutra Translated by Śikṣānanda. The cover, the paper on the shaft and the shaft are all original and the back of the seam between the cover and the first sheet of paper is stamped with the “Seal of Todaiji Temple.” On the back of the paper on the shaft, the manuscript still has ink from when it was copied by the people engaged in sutra copying. It is likely that it would have been written at the Scriptorium (Shakyo sho) in the middle of the Nara period.
　　The sixty-first volume is owned by Dai-tokyu Memorial Library, the sixty-second volume by Fujita Museum, the sixty-third volume by National Museum of Japanese History, the sixty-fourth volume by The Gotoh Museum and the sixty-fifth volume by an individual, all of which are designated as important cultural properties.