Art of the Lotus Sūtra

Willa Jane Tanabe, University of Hawaii


 

The artistic presentation of the Lotus Sūtra served to honor, preserve, explain and expound the teachings, thereby fulfilling the very exhortations found within the Sutra. The art of the Lotus Sūtra can be broadly divided into forms associated with transcription, that is copying the Sutra; transformation, that is paintings of the Sutra; juxtapositions of transcriptions and transformations, that is works that emphasize both copied text and paintings; and transfigurations of the Sutra, that is sculpted representations of the Sutra. In addition, Chinese Buddhists had to undertake the preliminary step of translating the Sutra before they could present the text or its contents artistically. Consequently, I have used these terms 1) Translation 2) Transcription, 3) Transformation, 4) Juxtaposition of Transcriptions &;Transformations, and 5) Transfiguration, as convenient divisions for a series of lectures on the Art of the Lotus Sūtra, in East Asia, especially China and Japan.

1. The Art of Translation

A discussion of the strategies and procedures in translating the Sūtra in China

Suggested Reading:

Pachow, W., "Development of Tripitaka-Translations in China," in Chinese Buddhism: Aspects of Interaction and Reinterpretation (Boston: University Press of America, 1980), pp. 101-114.

2. The Art of Transcription

A survey of the developments of the materials, formats, and calligraphic styles in hand copied and printed texts of the Lotus Sūtra (and sutras in general) in China and Japan.

Suggested Topics for Papers

Discuss those aspects of the format, materials and styles of Chinese scriptural scrolls that become standard throughout Asia and those that vary. reflecting particular cultural or national preferences and approaches.

Examine the impact of printing on the art of transcription.

Compare and contrast the sponsors, calligraphers, and audiences for copied sutras in the Nara and Heian periods

Survey copying practices on materials other than paper and explain the cultural context, rituals and significances for such practices. Examples could include embroidered sutras and sutras copied onto clay tablets.

Describe the various ways the Japanese embellished the paper used for transcription of sutras.

Suggested Readings:

Hughes, Sukey, Washi (Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1978).

Pal, Pratapaditya and Julia Meech Pekarik, Buddhist Book Illuminations (New York: Ravi Kumar Publishers, 1988).

Shimizu Yoshiaki and John M. Rosenfield, "Buddhist Texts," in Masters of Japanese Calligraphy 8th to 19th Century (New York: Japan House Gallery &;The Asia Society Galleries, 1984), pp. 34-45.

Stevens, John, "Shakyo: Sutra Copying," in Sacred Calligraphy of the East (Boulder, CO: Shambhala, 1981), pp. 97-132.

Tamura, Yoshiro and Kurata Bunsaku, etds., Art of the Lotus Sūtra, (Tokyo: Kosei, 1987), pp. 140-152..

Tanabe, Willa Jane, Paintings of the Lotus Sūtra (Tokyo: Weatherhill, 1988), pp. 28-36.

3. The Art of Transformation

An examination of the transformation of text into painting with special attention to the relationship of bianwen (henbun) and bianxiang (henso); oral narratives of paintings; the distinctive characteristics of narrative paintings, preaching scenes, and figure painting of the Lotus Sūtra. Chinese examples can be found chiefly in the Dunhuang murals and banners. Japanese examples are chiefly Kamakura and Muromachi paintings in the hanging scroll format.

Suggested Topics for Papers Emphasizing Chinese Paintings:

Discuss the meaning and relationship between bianwen and bianxiang in China and the implications for the popularization of the Lotus Sūtra.

Examine the literary evidence and pictorial evidence to indicate which deities and/or themes from the Lotus Sūtra became popular in Chinese painting and how these changed over time.

Compare the themes and styles of narrative illustrations in Dunhuang murals with the Japanese narrative paintings in the hanging scroll formats.

Discuss the connections between oral expositions and paintings of the Sutra within a larger East Asian context.

Trace the painted representations of a single figure from the Lotus Sūtra (Samantabhadra or Avalokitesvara, for example) across Central Asia and East Asian painting. Note changes that signified shifts in meaning and interpretation.

Suggested Readings Emphasizing Chinese Paintings:

Akiyama, Terukazu and Saburo Matsubara, Arts of China: Buddhist Cave Temples (Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1969).

Barrett, T.H., "The Origin of the Term pien-wen: An Alternative Hypothesis," Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain vol. 2, no. 2 (July, 1992) p. 241.

Brown, William Ira, "From Sutra to Pien-wen: A Study of 'Sudatta Erects a Monastery' and the Hsiang-mo Pien-wen," Tamkang Review vol. 9, no. 1 (Fall, 1978), pp. 67-101.

Davidson, J. Leroy, The Lotus Sūtra in Chinese Art (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1954).

Dehejia, V., "On Modes of Visual Narration in Early Buddhist Art," Art Bulletin vol. 72 (summer, 1990) pp. 374-392.

Dunhuang Institute for Cultural Relics, comp., The Art Treasures of Dunhuang, (Hongkong: Joint Publishing Co., 1981).

Dunhuang Research Institute, ed., Chugoku sekkutsu: Tonko Makko kutsu ( Chinese Cave Temple Series: The Mogao Caves at Dunhuang) 5 vols. (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1980-2). [This is in Japanese, but useful for illustrations].

Dunhuang Research Institute, ed., Dunhuang bihua (Dunhuang Wall Paintings (Beijing, 1959)

Gray, Basil, Buddhist Cave Paintings at Tun-huang (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1959).

Hartel, Herbert and Marianne Yaldiz, Along the Ancient Silk Rountes: Central Asian Art from the West Berlin State Museums (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1982).

Mair, Victor, Painting and Performance: Chinese Picture Recitation and Its Indian Genesis (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1988).

Mair, Victor, " Records of Transformation Tableaux (pien-hsiang)," T'oung Pao, vol. 72 (1986), pp. 3-43.

Mair, Victor, "Scroll Presentation in the T'ang Dynasty," Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies vol. 38, no. 1 (June, 1978), pp. 35-60.

Mair, Victor. T'ang Transformation Texts, Harvard-Yenching Monography Series 28 (Cambridge, MA: harvard University Council on East Asian Studies Publications, 1988).

Whitfield, Roderick, The Art of Central Asia: The Stein Collection in the British Museum vols.1 &;2 on Paintings from Dunhuang, vol. 3 on Textiles, Sculpture and Other Arts (Tokyo: 1982-5).

Whitfield Roderick, "The Monk Liu Sahe and the Dunhuang Paintings," Orientations (March, 1989), pp. 64-70.

Suggested Topics for Papers Emphasizing Japanese Paintings:

Compare the treatment of the content of selected chapters of the Lotus Sūtra in various Japanese hanging scrolls.

Discuss the differences in paintings of the Lotus Sūtra that were used in Esoteric rites and sects with those used in Tendai or Nichiren contexts.

Analyze the various paintings of Samantabhadra and suggest reasons for the popularity of certain forms.

Analyze the narrative methods used in Japanese paintings of the Lotus Sūtra and compare them to those used in Chinese murals.

Discuss the stylistic changes in Japanese paintings of Sakyamuni preaching on Vulture Peak. Compare these examples to Chinese paintings and prints of the same theme.

Suggested Readings Emphasizing Japanese Paintings:

Miya, Tsugio, "Pictorial Art of the Lotus Sūtra in Japan," in Tanabe, eds., The Lotus Sūtra in Japanese Culture (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1989), pp. 75-94.

Tamura, Yoshiro and Kurata Bunsaku, etds., Art of the Lotus Sūtra, (Tokyo: Kosei, 1987), pp. 125-139.

Tanabe, Willa Jane, Paintings of the Lotus Sūtra (Tokyo: Weatherhill, 1988). pp. 98-124.

Tanabe, Willa Jane, "The Winged Asita," East and West in Asian Art History: Opposition and Change (Kobe: Tenth International Symposium on Art Historical Studies, 1991), pp. 48-56.

4. The Art of the Juxtaposition of Textual Transcriptions and Pictorial Transformations

Examines the various ways text and painting interact from juxtaposition as in frontispiece paintings or alternating pictures and texts to works that superimpose text upon pictures such as in the Japanese fan-shaped sutras. This topic concentrates chiefly on illuminated sutra scrolls in both religious and secular styles. It also includes discussion of works in which the distinction between text and painting is ambiguous such as in the Japanese "Jeweled Stupa" (kinji hoto) mandala which presents text as picture and picture as text. Japanese examples of juxtaposition outnumber extant Chinese and Korean examples, and thus the emphasis is on Japanese approaches.

Suggested Topics for Papers

Compare the styles and interconnections between Chinese and Korean illuminated sutras.

Describe the development of themes and styles in Sung scriptural scrolls and books and their influence on Japanese works.

Compare the large scale mural illustrations of the Twenty-fifth Chapter of the Lotus, "The Universial Gate of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva,." with the small scale illustrations in frontispieces.

Explain the development and standardization of orthodox frontispieces to sutra scrolls

Analyze the aristocratic contribution to imparting a more uniquely Japanese style to illuminated sutra scrolls.

Compare the functions, audiences, and significance of illuminated manuscripts in the west and in Japan.

Examine the context and significance of a particular illuminated sutra scroll such as the Heike Nokyo or the Fan-shaped Lotus Sūtra booklets.

Explore text and image ambiguity in light of modern literary theories.

Explore the relationship of Buddhist poetry to the Lotus Sūtra text and paintings.

Suggested Readings:

Hughes, Sukey, Washi (Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1978).

Meech-Pekarik, Julia, "Disguised Scripts and Hidden Poems in an Illustrated Heian Stura: Ashide-e and Uta-e in the Heike nogyo," Archives of Asian Art vol. 31 (1977), pp. 52-75.

Meech-Pekarik, Julia, "The Flying White Horse: Transmission of the Valahassa Jataka Imagery from India to Japan," Artibus Asiae, vol. 43, nos. 1-2 (1981/82), pp. 111-128.

Meech-Pekarik, Julia, Taira Kiyomori and the Heike nogyo, (npublished Ph.D. dissertaion) Harvard University, 1976.

Miya, Tsugio, "Pictorial Art of the Lotus Sūtra in Japan," in Tanabe, eds., The Lotus Sūtra in Japanese Culture (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1989), pp. 75-94.

Murase, Miyeko, "Kuan Yin as Savior of Men: Illustrations of the Twenty-fifth Chapter of the Lotus Sūtra," Artibus Asiae, vol. 33, nos. 1-2 (1971), pp. 39-73.

Pal, Pratapaditya and Julia Meech Pekarik, Buddhist Book Illuminations (New York: Ravi Kumar Publishers, 1988).

Pak, Young-sook, "Illuminated Buddhist Manuscripts in Korea," Oriental Art, vol. 33, no. 4 (Winter, 1977-78), pp. 357-374.

Rosenfield, John M., et. al., The Courtly Tradition in Japanese Art and Literature (Cambridge, MA: Fogg Art Museum, 1973).

Rosenfield, John M. and E. ten Grotenhuis, Journey of the Three Jewels (New York: Asia House, 1979).

Tamura, Yoshiro and Kurata Bunsaku, etds., Art of the Lotus Sūtra, (Tokyo: Kosei, 1987), pp. 30-36; 121-124.

Tanabe, Willa Jane, Paintings of the Lotus Sūtra (Tokyo: Weatherhill, 1988), pp. 37-97.

Tanabe, Willa Jane, "The Lotus Lectures: Hokke Hakko," Monumenta Nipponica, vol. 39, no. 4 (Winter, 1984), pp. 393-407.

Tanabe, Willa Jane, "The Winged Asita," East and West in Asian Art History: Opposition and Change (Kobe: 10th International Symposium on Art Historical Studies, 1991), pp. 48-56.

Tsuji, Shegebumi, "Introduction," Studia Artium Orientalis et Occidentalis vol 1, 1982. [Special edition on Problems in the Relation between Text and Illustration]

Weitzmann, Kurt, Illustrations in Roll and Codex: A Study of the Origin and Method of Text Illustration (Princeton: Princeton University Press, rev. ed., 1970).

__________, "Narration in Early Christendom," American Journal of Archaeology vol. 61 (1957), pp. 83-91.

__________, Studies in Classical and Byzantine Manuscript Illumination (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971).

__________, "The Art of Ancient and Medieval Book Illumination," Studia Artium Orientalis et Occidentalis vol. 1, 1982.

Yu, Chun-fang, "Feminine Images of Kuan-Yin in post-T'ang China," Journal of Chinese Religions no. 18 (Fall, 1990), p. 61.

5. The Art of Transfiguration

Sculptural representations based on the Lotus Sūtra appear both in China and Japan but different figuress are emphasized. While Sakyamuni or Avalokitesvara are central figures in all East Asian countries, the Chinese also produced a large number of the two Buddhas from the Eleventh chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, "Apparition of the Jeweled Stupa" while the Japanese preferred representations of Samantabhadra (Fugen), the Ten Disciples, and the Eight Classes of Beings. Relief sculpture that illustrates narrative episodes from the Sutra is rare, but those that exist can be compared with illustrations found in frontispieces, murals, and hanging scrolls.

Suggested Topics for Papers

Compare stylistic changes in the representations of the two Buddhas, Prabhutaratna and Sakyamuni, and suggest reasons for their popularity in China.

Trace the development of the Avalokitesvara figure (and/or some of the thirty-three forms which this figure can take) in Chinese, Korean and Japanese scultpure.

Review the initial appearances, rise and decline in popularity, and the significant Chinese sites where sculputed representations from the Lotus Sūtra appear.

Survey the Japanese sculpture that are clearly derived from the Lotus Sūtra. Are there examples of the same figures that are not clearly linked to the Lotus Sūtra? Possible choices: Sakyamuni, Samantabhadra, Ten Disciples, Eight Deva.

Suggested Readings:

Akiyama, Terukazu and Saburo Matsubara, Arts of China II: Buddhist Cave Temples (Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1969).

Davidson, J. Leroy, The Lotus Sūtra in Chinese Art (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1954).

Mizuno, Seiichi and T. Nagahiro, Unko Sekkutsu (Yun-kang, the Buddhist Cave Temples of the Fifth Century A.D. in North China) 16 vols. (Kyoto, 1952-55). [In Jp. with Eng. summary, and useful for illustrations.]

__________. Ryumon Sekkutsu no Kenkyu (A Study of the Buddhist Cave Temples at Lung-Men) (Tokyo: 1941). [In Jp. with Eng. summary and useful for illustrations.]

Soper, A. C., Literary Evidence for Early Buddhist Art in China (Ascona: Artibus Asiae, 1959).

Sullivan, Michael and D. Darbois, The Cave Temples of Maichishan (London: 1969).

Tamura, Yoshiro and Kurata Bunsaku, etds., Art of the Lotus Sūtra, (Tokyo: Kosei, 1987), pp. 150-159.

Whitfield, Roderick, The Art of Central Asia: The Stein Collection in the British Museum vol. 3 on Textiles, Sculpture and Other Arts (Tokyo: 1982-85).

Yu, Chun-fang, "Feminine Images of Kuan-Yin in post-T'ang China," Journal of Chinese Religions no. 18 (Fall, 1990), p. 61.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Those books with asterisks denote required reading.

*Akiyama, Terukazu and Saburo Matsubara, Arts of China: Buddhist Cave Temples (Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1969).

Barrett, T.H., "The Origin of the Term pien-wen: An Alternative Hypothesis," Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain vol. 2, no. 2 (July, 1992) p. 241.

Brown, William Ira, "From Sutra to Pien-wen: A Study of 'Sudatta Erects a Monastery' and the Hsiang-mo Pien-wen," Tamkang Review vol. 9, no. 1 (Fall, 1978), pp. 67-101.

*Davidson, J. Leroy, The Lotus Sūtra in Chinese Art (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1954).

Dehejia, V., "On Modes of Visual Narration in Early Buddhist Art," Art Bulletin vol. 72 (summer, 1990) pp. 374-392.

Dunhuang Institute for Cultural Relics, comp., The Art Treasures of Dunhuang, (Hongkong: Joint Publishing Co., 1981).

Dunhuang Research Institute, ed., Chugoku sekkutsu: Tonko Makko kutsu ( Chinese Cave Temple Series: The Mogao Caves at Dunhuang) 5 vols. (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1980-2).

Dunhuang Research Institute, ed., Dunhuang bihua (Dunhuang Wall Paintings (Beijing, 1959)

Dunhuang Research Institute, ed., Dunhuang cai shuo (Dunhuang Painted Sculptures) (Beijing, 1978).

Gray, Basil, Buddhist Cave Paintings at Tun-huang (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1959).

Hartel, Herbert and Marianne Yaldiz, Along the Ancient Silk Rountes: Central Asian Art from the West Berlin State Museums (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1982).

Hughes, Sukey, Washi (Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1978).

Mair, Victor, Painting and Performance: Chinese Picture Recitation and Its Indian Genesis (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1988).

Mair, Victor, " Records of Transformation Tableaux (pien-hsiang)," T'oung Pao, vol. 72 (1986), pp. 3-43.

Mair, Victor, "Scroll Presentation in the T'ang Dynasty," Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies vol. 38, no. 1 (June, 1978), pp. 35-60.

Mair, Victor. T'ang Transformation Texts, Harvard-Yenching Monography Series 28 (Cambridge, MA: harvard University Council on East Asian Studies Publications, 1988).

Meech-Pekarik, Julia, "The Flying White Horse: Transmission of the Valahassa Jataka Imagery from India to Japan," Artibus Asiae, vol. 43, nos. 1-2 (1981/82), pp. 111-128.

Meech-Pekarik, Julia, "Disguised Scripts and Hidden Poems in an Illustrated Heian Stura: Ashide-e and Uta-e in the Heike nogyo," Archives of Asian Art vol. 31 (1977), pp. 52-75.

Meech-Pekarik, Julia, Taira Kiyomori and the Heike nogyo, (npublished Ph.D. dissertaion) Harvard University, 1976.

*Miya, Tsugio, "Pictorial Art of the Lotus Sūtra in Japan," in Tanabe, eds., The Lotus Sūtra in Japanese Culture (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1989), pp. 75-94.

Mizuno, Seiichi and T. Nagahiro, Unko Sekkutsu (Yun-kang, the Buddhist Cave Temples of the Fifth Century A.D. in North China, 16 vols. (Kyoto, 1952-55).

__________. Ryumon Sekkutsu no Kenkyu (A Study of the Buddhist Cave Temples at Lung-Men) (Tokyo: 1941).

Murase, Miyeko, "Kuan Yin as Savior of Men: Illustrations of the Twenty-fifth Chapter of the Lotus Sūtra," Artibus Asiae, vol. 33, nos. 1-2 (1971), pp. 39-73.

Pachow, W., "Development of Tripitaka-Translations in China," in Chinese Buddhism: Aspects of Interaction and Reinterpretation (Boston: University Press of America, 1980), pp. 101-114.

*Pal, Pratapaditya and Julia Meech Pekarik, Buddhist Book Illuminations (New York: Ravi Kumar Publishers, 1988).

Pak, Young-sook, "Illuminated Buddhist Manuscripts in Korea," Oriental Art, vol. 33, no. 4 (Winter, 1977-78), pp. 357-374.

Rosenfield, John M., et. al., The Courtly Tradition in Japanese Art and Literature (Cambridge, MA: Fogg Art Museum, 1973).

Rosenfield, John M. and E. ten Grotenhuis, Journey of the Three Jewels (New York: Asia House, 1979).

Shimizu Yoshiaki and John M. Rosenfield, "Buddhist Texts," in Masters of Japanese Calligraphy 8th to 19th Century (New York: Japan House Gallery &;The Asia Society Galleries, 1984), pp. 34-45.

Soper, A. C., Literary Evidence for Early Buddhist Art in China (Ascona: Artibus Asiae Publishers, 1959).

Stevens, John, "Shakyo: Sutra Copying," in Sacred Calligraphy of the East (Boulder, CO: Shambhala, 1981), pp. 97-132.

Sullivan, Michael and D. Darbois, The Cave Temples of Maichishan (London: 1969).

*Tamura, Yoshiro and Kurata Bunsaku, etds., Art of the Lotus Sūtra, (Tokyo: Kosei, 1987).

*Tanabe, Willa Jane, Paintings of the Lotus Sūtra (Tokyo: Weatherhill, 1988).

Tanabe, Willa Jane, "The Lotus Lectures: Hokke Hakko," Monumenta Nipponica, vol. 39, no. 4 (Winter, 1984), pp. 393-407.

Tanabe, Willa Jane, "The Winged Asita," East and West in Asian Art History: Opposition and Change (Kobe: Tenth International Symposium on Art Historical Studies, 1991), pp. 48-56.

Tsuji, Shegebumi, "Introduction," Studia Artium Orientalis et Occidentalis vol 1, 1982. [Special edition on Problems in the Relation between Text and Illustration]

Weitzmann, Kurt, Illustrations in Roll and Codex: A Study of the Origin and Method of Text Illustration (Princeton: Princeton University Press, rev. ed., 1970).

Weitzmann, Kurt, "Narration in Early Christendom," American Journal of Archaeology vol. 61 (1957), pp. 83-91.

__________, Studies in Classical and Byzantine Manuscript Illumination (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971).

----------, "The Art of Ancient and Medieval Book Illumination," Studia Artium Orientalis et Occidentalis vol. 1, 1882.

Whitfield, Roderick, The Art of Central Asia: The Stein Collection in the British Museum vols.1 &;2 on Paintings from Dunhuang, vol. 3 on Textiles, Sculpture and Other Arts (Tokyo: 1982-5).

Whitfield Roderick, "The Monk Liu Sahe and the Dunhuang Paintings," Orientations (March, 1989), pp. 64-70.

Yu, Chun-fang, "Feminine Images of Kuan-Yin in post-T'ang China," Journal of Chinese Religions no. 18 (Fall, 1990), p. 61.

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