tanjoubutsu　誕生仏

KEY WORD :　art history / iconography

Lit. Buddha at birth. A sculptural representation of the historical Buddha *Shaka 釈迦 immediately after his birth. According to legend, his mother Mahamaya gave birth to him from her right side. The infant then took 7 steps and, pointing to the heavens with his right hand and to the earth with his left hand, proclaimed, Tenjou tenga yuiga dokuson 天上天下唯我独尊 (I alone am the honoured one in the heavens and on earth). The tanjoubutsu show the infant Shaka in this pose, usually wearing a loincloth. Shaka's birth is counted among 8 major events in his life (see *Shaka hassou 釈迦八相), but statuary representations of this type are rare outside of Korea and Japan. Elsewhere the infant Shaka is generally depicted in reliefs and murals with both arms hanging at his side or with the right hand raised in the mudaor bestowing fearlessness *semui-in 施無畏印. In Japan images in bronze (and occasionally in wood) between 5-20 cm in height are very common because they have becomes a requisite for the *kanbutsu-e 潅仏会 or rite for sprinkling (an image of) the Buddha. The rite is performed annually on April 8th in celebration of Shaka's birthday, when a tanjoubutsu statuette is placed in a shallow bowl, kanbutsuban 潅仏盤 inside a small shrine decorated with flowers, hanamidou 花御堂 and is sprinkled by worshippers usually with sweet hydrangea tea, amacha 甘茶 in imitation of the 2 dragon-kings who are said to have poured perfumed water on Shaka when he was born. This rite, which may be traced back to the 7c., is today more commonly known as hanamatsuri 花祭り (flower festival). Tanjoubutsu date from as early as the Asuka period, but the most renowned is at Toudaiji 東大寺 (Nara; national treasure). Other representative examples include those at Goshinji 悟真寺 (Hakuhou period) Nara, Zensuiji 善水寺 (Nara period) Shiga prefecture, and Daihouonji 大報恩寺 (Kamakura period) Kyoto.

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