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

Panel paintings of the Mandalas of the Two Worlds are installed in this small, elegantly shaped shrine (zushi). Double doors on the front and back open up to reveal a mandala on either side.

The paintings were made by affixing fabric to cypress boards, coating the fabric in a priming layer of white, and then applying colored pigments. Despite their small sizes, the mandalas are rendered in remarkable detail. They follow iconographies that were originally brought to Japan from China by Kūkai (774–835), the founder of the esoteric Shingon school in Japan. However, the Womb World Mandala exhibits minor deviations from these original iconographies in that the Hall of Ākāśagarbha (J. Kokūzō-in) is divided into upper and lower parts and the renderings of the Thousand-Armed Bodhisattva Kannon (J. Senju Kannon; Skt. Sahasrabhuja-avalokiteśvara) and the bodhisattva Kongō Zaō (Skt. Aṣṭottaraśatabhujavajradhara ) in the upper section are slightly smaller. Stylistically, the mandalas are exceptionally decorative. In the Womb World Mandala, lines in cut gold leaf were applied to the borders, halos, and robes of the principal deities and were also used to form an ornate background pattern. Cut gold leaf is used in the Diamond World Mandala as well to create the mesh-like pattern on the outer border of the Four-Mudras Assembly (J. Shiin’e).

The deities have peach skin with red shading outlined in fine strokes of ink. The clothes are painted in red, orange-red, and green and outlined in ink. The petals on the lotus pedestals are divided in red and orange-red sections and outlined in white. The paintings exhibit styles associated with the late Heian period (794–1185), like the deities’ child-like countenances, the vibrant, high-quality pigments, the delicate cut gold leaf patterning, and the striking coloring. The mandalas were likely produced no later than the early Kamakura period (1185–1333). The black lacquered shrine dates to the same period, as it also reflects the tastes of the late Heian period. The work was formerly owned by Shōjuraikōji Temple in Shiga Prefecture.