Kojima mandara　子島曼荼羅

KEY WORD :　art history / iconography

Also read Koshima mandara. A pair of Mandala of the Two Realms *Ryoukai mandara 両界曼荼羅 in gold and silver paint on dark-blue twill originally kept at Kojimadera 子島寺 (Nara.) but now preserved at the Nara National Museum. Also known as Tobi mandara 飛曼荼羅 or Hikou mandara 飛行曼荼羅 (flying mandara). The Matrix mandala *Taizoukai mandara 胎蔵界曼荼羅 is 349.1cm X 307.9cm in size and the Diamond World mandala *Kongoukai mandara 金剛界曼荼羅 is 351.3cm X 297.0cm. According to the temple tradition, Shinkou 真興 (934-1004), who restored Kojimadera during the late Heian period, was given these two mandala by the emperor Ichijou 一条 during the Chouhou 長保 era (999-1004), and they remained treasured possessions of the temple until recent times. Iconographically they differ markedly from orthodox versions of the Ryoukai mandara as transmitted by *Kuukai 空海 (774-835): for example, the 16 deities of the Auspicious Aeon gengou juurokuson 賢劫十六尊 are missing from the Vanquisher of the Three Worlds, Gouzanze-e 降三世会 in the Kongoukai mandara, while in the Taizoukai mandara the positions of Tenkuraion 天鼓雷音 and Kaifukeou 開敷華王 in the Chuudai hachiyouin 中台八葉院 have been intercanged and the number of deities in the Soshitsuji-in 蘇悉地院 has been increased to 16. It is generally considered that they date from around the Chouhou era when they are said to have been given to Shinkou but there are some scholars who place the date of their execution in the early Heian period. They are at any rate an unusually early example of the Ryoukai mandara, and because they are also in an extremely good state of preservation, they have been designated national treasures.

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