Figure 1. First page of the second scroll Preface in the Tōdaijigire manuscript, showing the title Sanbōe at right. By permission of Nagoya City Museum.

Figure 2. First page of the Tōkyo Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan manuscript (a.k.a. Tōji Kanchi’in bon). By permission of Tokyo National Museum, courtesy of Artize, Ltd.

Figure 3. First page of the Maeda manuscript. By permission of Zaidan Hōjin Maeda Ikutokukai Sonkeikaku Bunko and Yagi Shoten.

Figure 4. Comparison of orthography of the passages in the General Preface translated as “Its title is [Illustrations of] the Three Jewels, because it intends to convey the message that you should form a karmic bond with the Three Refuges. Its sections are three because these correspond to the Three Periods.” Sample (1) reproduces the orthography of the Tōji Kanchi’in manuscript, sample (2), the Maeda manuscript, and sample (3), Yamada Yoshio’s Sanbōe ryakuchū. (Sono na wo Sanbō to ihu koto ha tsutaheiwamu mono ni sanki no en wo musubashimemu to nari. Sono kazu wo mimaki ni wakateru ha sanji no hima ni atetaru nari.) Yamada’s version includes the furigana glosses as indicated; his notes point out that 三局 (glossed mimaki) is a miscopying for 三歸.

Figure 5. The Himalaya Boy’s encounter with the demon in the first volume of a circa 1600 version of Shaka no honji (“The Life of the Buddha,” first book), in the Nara ehon format. Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 600a.

Figure 6. Kūya, at left, with his distinctive staff, gong, and images of Amitābha issuing from his mouth as he chants the Buddha’s name, and Perceiver of World’s Sounds, at right. Hanging scroll; undated but possibly tenth century; artist unknown. By permission of Ensenji, Hannō-shi, Saitama-ken.

Figure 7. King Śibi allows his flesh to be cut from his thigh: detail of mural from the north wall of Mogao Cave 254. Dunhuang. 439–534 CE. Northern Wei Dynasty. Image courtesy of the Dunhuang Academy.

Figure 8. Sequence of episodes in the Deer King jātaka: mural on the west wall of Mogao Cave 257. Dunhuang. 386–535 CE. Northern Wei Dynasty. Image Courtesy of the Dunhuang Academy.

Figure 9. The Himalaya Boy jātaka painting on the Tamamushi no zushi shrine, Hōryūji; seventh to eighth century. CE. At lower left, the boy encounters the demon; at center left, he writes the verse on the rock face; at top, he plunges toward the demon, only to be intercepted by Indra, at right. Courtesy of Hōryūji and Askaen, Ltd.

Figure 10. The Mahāsattva jātaka painting on the Tamamushi no zushi shrine, Hōryūji; seventh to eighth century CE. At upper right, the Prince disrobes; at center, he dives into the tigers’ den, and at lower right the mother tiger feeds on his flesh. Courtesy of Hōryūji and Askaen, Ltd.

Figure 11. Detail from the Śyāma jātaka tale mural, Mogao Cave 302. Sui, 581–618 CE. Dunhuang. The dying hero, in grey at center, asks the King of Benares to care for his blind parents. Image courtesy of the Dunhuang Academy.

Figure 12. Detail from Genjō sanzō e (“Illustrated Story of Xuanzang ‘Tripiṭaka’”), fifth scroll, first scene: the Chinese pilgrim visits the ruins of the Jetavana Garden in India. Fourteenth century CE. Courtesy of Fujita Museum, Osaka.

Figure 13. Scene in Shōtoku Taishi eden (“Pictorial Biography of Prince Shōtoku”) in handscroll format, sheet 4, right section. Early sixteenth century. At the age of six the prince meets priests and nuns from Baekje, who bring copies of Buddhist sutras with them. Courtesy of the British Museum.

Figure 14. Hanging scroll image of Prince Shōtoku lecturing on the Śrīmālā Sutra at Empress Suiko’s court. (Japanese title: Kenbon chakushoku Shōtoku Taishi Shōmangyōkō sanzu 絹本着色聖徳太子勝鬘経講讃図). Property of Shōrinji, Moriyama, Shiga Prefecture; courtesy of Shiga Kenritsu Biwako Bunka Kaikan. In this version of the scene, his son Prince Naka no Oe is shown at his right elbow and one tier lower than his father; on the next level at left is “Dharma Master Hyeja” (慧慈, originally from Goguryeo) and on the lowest tier the Confucian scholar (hakushi) Kakka (覚哿, an emigré from Baekje). Seated on the same level as Kakuka are Ono no Imoko (center) and Soga no Umako (at right).

Figure 15. Portrait of En the Ascetic (En no gyōja), attributed to Jakusai (late fourteenth to fifteenth century). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City: H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929.

Figure 16. Hanging scroll portrait of “Four Buddhist Saints,” Eiwa version (Shishō gyoei, Eiwa bon 四聖御影, 永和本), dated 1377: Emperor Shōmu at center, with Bodhisena (The Brahman Abbot), Gyōki, and Rōben—the key figures in the founding of Tōdaiji. National Treasure; previously held by Mikenji, near Nara; now property of Tōdaiji; courtesy of Nara National Museum.

Figure 17. King Yama (Enra’ō) holding court in the underworld; from the set of “Ten Kings” (Jūōzu 十王図): China, Yuan, fourteenth century. Important Cultural Property. Courtesy of Nara National Museum.

Page 266 →Figure 18. Portrait of Gonsō (Gonsō Daitoku zu). Undated. Courtesy of Daianji, Nara.

Figure 19. “The Special Royal Assembly for the Meager Feast” (Tōji Jun Misai e) at Tōji, Kyoto: an early-modern revival of the court ritual introduced in 1834 (Tenpō 5) as part of the celebrations of the one hundredth anniversary of the death of Kūkai (Kōbō Daishi issennengyoki). From Kōbō Daishi issennengyoki zue illustrated by Shinsensai Kiyoyasu, also published in 1834. Courtesy of National Institute of Japanese Literature.

Figure 20. Monks assembled in the Seiryōden for “The Debate in the Palace during the Royal Assembly for the Meager Feast” (“Misai e uchi no rongi,” as depicted in the Nenjū gyōji emaki scroll) (version recreated by Sumiyoshi Gyokei based on the lost Heian-period original, ca. 1661). Property of Tanaka Collection, Tokyo. Courtesy of Mr. Shigeru Tanaka and Chūō Kōron Shinsha.