hide　碑伝

KEY WORD :　architecture / buildings & structures

Markers set at intervals along a mountain trail by ascetic monks called yamabushi 山伏 or shugenja 修験者. Many of the monks belonged to the order of shugendou 修験道, a sect of Buddhism that is dedicated to achieving mystic powers by its teachings of ascetic practices in the mountains. By the mid-Kamakura period stone tablets *itabi 板碑, were inscribed with Buddhist texts by the monks. The top of the monument became pyramidal in shape. The rear side is flat. Two grooves are also carved beneath this part. The shaft differs from ordinary stone tablets because over half the stone is cut out about 1/5 or 1/6 of the way down from the groove at the top. The lower part is rough stone and is sunk into the ground. . The ascetic practices followed were connected with the chief mandala *mandara 曼荼羅 of Esoteric Buddhism mikkyou 密教, the Mandala of the Womb World *Taizoukai mandara 胎蔵界曼荼羅 (Sk. Gabha-dhatu mandala) and the Mandala of the Diamond Realm *Kongoukai mandara 金剛界曼荼羅 (Sk. Vajra-dhatu Mandala). A stone with a pyramidal top is associated with the Diamond Realm; one with a flat top is called sanroufuda 参籠札; one with a bulbous onion-shaped top represents the Womb World. The origin of hide is presumed to have derived from the necessity of the ascetic priests to leave proof of their religious journeys up the mountains. At first they cut down trees and smoothed the surface of the stump in order to inscribe for future generations their names, dates, and the deities invoked. By the early Kamakura period, tall logs were used as hide and called enboku hide 円木碑伝. Flat wooden boards were also prepared before the journey, carried, and set into the ground, but they decayed quickly. From the latter 13c onward stone was used preferred. Examples: Nyohouji Hide 如宝寺碑伝 (1276), in Fukushima prefecture, and Kouyasan Oku-no-in 高野山奥院 (1276), in Wakayama prefecture, Myououin 明王院 (Muromachi period) in Shiga prefecture.

REFERENCES:

EXTERNAL LINKS:

NOTES:

(C)2001 Japanese Architecture and Art Net Users System.　No reproduction or republication without written permission. 掲載のテキスト・写真・イラストなど、全てのコンテンツの無断複製・転載を禁じます。