Important Cultural PropertyShrine with Reliquary and Ornamentation of a Stupa for the Hokyoin Darani, with Lotus Sutra

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  • 黒漆宝篋印塔嵌装舎利厨子 附 法華経
  • 1 piece, 8 booklets
  • Wood with black lacquer Container of sarira: gilt bronze
  • Total H 25.7, W(base) 19.8, D(base) 12.5
  • Kamakura period/13th century
  • Nara National Museum
  • 1258(工268)

  This is a small cabinet (zushi) that has a double door on the front and the back. Within the cabinet, there is a rear wall, on one side of which a gilt bronze plate shaped a stupa for the Hokyoin Dharani is inlaid and the other side has an inlaid a wooden wall moving up and down on a raile (kendon shiki). On the front and back sides of the wooden wall, a silk cloth is pasted, on which a seated Thus Come One (nyorai) image or the Center Eight Petal Hall (Chudai hachiyo-in) of the Mandala of the Womb World is painted.
  The container of sarira shaped a stupa for the Hokyoin Dharani was made following all layered style (zenkai shiki) and the container body is larger than the roof. Inside the body, there is a lotus pedestal in the center of a round hole covered with a crystal plate, which enables the worship of the Buddhist relics inside. There are corner decorations on the slightly warped roof ends, which are linked to the top spire (sorin) with a chain. Since there is a base below the base pedestal, it seems that it was intended to be a jeweled pagoda (hoto), even though it is in the Hokyoin Dharani stupa style.
  Since the seated Thus Come One image painted on one side of the inlaid wooden wall is making a mudra, Jo’in, and has a dharma wheel (rinpo) in its hands, it seems to be the image of the Golden Wheel of Shakamuni (Skt. Śākyamuni). The back side of the wooden wall depicts the Center Eight Petal Hall of the Mandala of the Womb World and shows the relationship between the Golden Wheel of Shalamuni and the central image of Dainichi (Skt. Mahāvairocana) in the Womb World as the relationship between the front and the back. Moreover, the structure of this cabinet represents the relationship between the Buddha ashes and the Golden Wheel of Shakamuni and Dainichi as the relationship between the front and the back. Since the esoteric Buddhist rite for sarira and the Golden Wheel of Shakamuni are closely connected in the Ono three schools of Shingon sect (Ono san ryu) centering on Kajuji Family, this cabinet is a container of sarira related to the Ono three schools.
  The attached transcription of the Lotus Sutra is in the butterfly binding style (deccho so) and all eight booklets have been handed down to the present. They were stored in the cabinet. There was a colophon on the eighth volume, which says that the Lotus Sutra was copied in Karoku 2 (1226) by Ko Amida Butsu (孝阿弥陀仏).

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