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

The Ruihishō was compiled by Kanjin (1084–1153), the founder of the Kajūji lineage of Shingon esoteric practice. It contains sutra excerpts on aspects of esoteric practice as well as iconographic drawings and oral teachings of past venerated masters. Presently 11 copies of the Ruihishō are owned by Kōsanji Temple in Toganō, Kyoto. These four volumes (“The Four Heavenly Kings Following Maheśvara”, “The Five Great Wisdom Kings”, “The Eleven-Headed Kannon” (J. Jūichimen Kannon; Skt. Ekādaśamukha-avalokiteśvara) and “FluiditiesWater of Lustove”) were originally owned by Kōsanji as well. The beginning of each scroll is stamped with the square red seal of Hōbenchi-in.

Excluding “Water Fluidities of LoveLust”, the remaining three of the four scrolls have colophons revealing they were copied by Jōshin (a disciple of the venerable Myōe) of Kōsanji in Jōkyū 2 (1220) based on a copy the priest Chikai (1121–1203) made of Kanjin’s original manuscript in Ninpei 4 (1154).

Among the four scrolls, four iconographic drawings of the Four Heavenly Kings are included in “Four Heavenly Kings Following Maheśvara” and eight drawings of Kannon are in “The Eleven-Headed Kannon”.

The drawings in the former are notable for including the iconographies of statues in Ogurisu Yakushi Hall as well as the Main Hall and Mieidō Hall of Kajūji Temple that are rarely included in other collections. In particular, the four heads of the Four Heavenly Kings drawn after the statues in Mieidō Hall are valuable because they are thought to have been attached as faithful copies of Chikai’s transcription and thus preserve the appearances of the statues’ heads during the Ninpei era.

The drawings in the latter are the original images referenced in the 44th volume of a collection of iconographies compiled by the priest Kakuzen (called Kakuzenshō, b. 1143) in a section entitled “The Eleven-Headed Kannon, Part I” (“Jūichimen jō”) that is included in the Taishō Tripiṭaka. This intriguingly suggests a close link between the Kakuzenshō and the Ruihishō. This handscroll also includes the iconography of the Eleven-Headed Kannon (small Kannon) used as one of the principal objects of worship in a repentance ceremony called the Shuni-e (or Omizutori) held at Nigatsudō Hall at Tōdaiji Temple.

The two scrolls containing iconographic drawings offer critical insights for studying Buddhist iconography, as they are early copies that faithfully preserve iconographies from the late Heian period prior to the compilation of the Kakuzenshō.

The “Four Heavenly Kings Following Maheśvara” is copied on the back of an old type of calendar (guchūreki) written in Chinese characters that marked auspicious and inauspicious days.