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

In 691 (Tienshou 2), the Chinese monk Yi Jing (635-713) recorded his journey to India and other parts of South Asia and the observations he made there of the daily lives and practices of monks and nuns. Though his writing is extremely abstruse, this volume includes reading markers that are historically invaluable. The beginning and end of this manuscript have been lost. Later, in the Edo period, the Shingon scholar Jiun Onko (1718-1804) authored a commentary of Yi Jing’s account entitled Nankai kikinaihoden kairansho (Commentary on An Account of Buddhist Practices Sent from the Southern Seas).