raigou-in　来迎印

KEY WORD :　art history / sculptures

Lit. welcoming mudra. A mudra or hand gesture *in 印 in which the forefinger, middle finger or occasionally third finger is joined to the thumb; it is formed with both hands, with the right hand raised and the left hand pendent. Its name derives from the fact that it was believed to be the mudra displayed by *Amida 阿弥陀 when he came to welcome the dead into his Pure Land joudo 浄土 called Utmost Bliss (Jp: gokuraku 極楽; Sk:sukhavati). Hence this name is not applied to similar mudras used with deities other than Amida. With the growing popularity of the Pure Land faith in Japan during the late-Heian and Kamakura periods, great numbers of images of Amida displaying this raigou-in were produced, and many of them are still extant. In particular, the standing images of Amida with this mudra by Kaikei 快慶 (late 12c-early 13c) later came to be looked upon as a standard model for standing images. The systematization of the various forms of the raigou-in during the Edo period resulted in the following three types from among the "mudras of the nine grades of Amida" *Amida kubon-in 阿弥陀九品印: "mudra of the upper grade: lower birth" joubon geshou-in 上品下生印 (thumb and forefinger joined); "mudra of the middle grade: lower birth" chuubon geshou-in 中品下生印 (thumb and middle finger joined); and "mudra of the lower grade, lower birth"gebon geshou-in 下品下生印 ( thumb and third finger joined). It is, however, anachronous to apply these terms to images antedating the Edo period. In addition to the raigou-in with the right hand raised and the left hand pendent, there are also examples of the reverse form (e.g., central image of the Amida triad at Joudoji 浄土寺 in Hyougo prefecture), and this is known as "the reverse raigou"gyakuraigou 逆来迎 or sakate raigou 逆手来迎. This form developed under the influence of Chinese images of Amida dating from the Song dynasty, and examples are found in Japan from the Kamakura period onwards. In images of Amida in China and along the Silk Road, on the other hand, it is this "reverse" form that predominates, and from that point of view it is rather the Japanese raigou-in that ought to be termed "reverse". But these terms have already won wide currency in Japan.

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