. landmarks of esoteric art in japan 917
the guise of a floating katsura tree (Konryū Kashō den, GR 5: 546a;
Katsuragawa engi, ZGR 28 : 119–20). Sōō later carved the katsura
log into three rough-hewn sculptures of Acalanātha, and had Ninsan
(n.d.) make at least one of them into a finished sculpture (Konryū
Kashō den, GR 5: 547–548).^11 Based on an injunction found in the
Mahāvairocana sūtra, ordinands at the time were expected to be able
to make Buddhist images, whether simple sketches or rough-hewn
sculptures. This practice is the origin of what later came to be called
natabori sculpture (Sawa 1964, 116–19). Sōō’s three sculptures
were installed at the Mudōji on Mt. Hiei, the Sokushō Myōōin
at Katsuragawa, and the Isakiji on the far side of
Lake Biwa, but none is extant (Murayama Shūichi 1994, 81; Kageyama
2000, 244).
With the increasing popularity of esoteric rituals among the nobility,
whether for favorable rebirth or for worldly concerns such as sickness
and childbirth, specialized halls dedicated to esoteric images became
common at temples sponsored by the nobility (for a discussion of eso-
teric imagery related to favorable rebirth, see Mack 2006b, 297–317;
for that associated with worldly concerns, see Mack 2006a, 151–271).
Esoteric halls were built at the Fujiwara clan temple Hosshōji
in 1006 and Michinaga’s Hōjōji in 1022 (IBJ, s.v. “Hōjōji”). The
Ācalanātha sculpture originally installed in the Godaidō hall
devoted to the five mantra kings at the Hosshōji is believed to be the
work of Kōshō (n.d.), father of the famous sculptor Jōchō
(d. 1057); the figure is now at the Tōfukuji Dōjuin (IBJ, s.v. “Hosshōji”;
Asabashō, BZ 39: 93; GMZ fig. 36).
The Fujiwara temple Byōdōin , now more famous for its
replication of Amitābha’s Pure Land, originally also had a hall for
the mantra kings built in 1066, a hall for Acalanātha in 1072, and a
hall for fire offerings (gomadō, ) in 1074 (IBJ, s.v. “Byōdōin”;
Kokuhō Byōdōin ten, exhibition catalogue 174). This trend continued
with the rise in power of the retired emperors, and esoteric halls were
established at temples of imperial patronage, including Emperor Shi-
rakawa’s Hosshōji (IBJ, s.v. “Hosshōji”; MJ 399–400; KD 12:
760–61); Emperor Gosanjō’s Enshūji ( KD 2: 401; de Visser
1935, 481–82); Emperor Toba’s Anrakujuin at the Tobadono
(^11) Ninsan was a descendent of the Southern House of the Fujiwara. It is unclear
whether he was a secular artisan (eshi ) or a Buddhist sculptor (busshi ).