918 karen j. mack
Imperial Villa (MJ 18; Fukuyama 1976, 86–92); and Emperor Goshi-
rakawa’s Hōjūji ( KD 12: 586; Fukuyama 1976, 92).
A number of extant Heian-period esoteric paintings not otherwise
addressed in this essay should be mentioned at least in passing, although
this is not a comprehensive list. The Yellow Fudō (Acalanātha) paint-
ing at Onjōji has long been accepted as a work produced during the
lifetime of Enchin (814–891), and recent scholarship suggests
that it was commissioned by him for the denpō kanjō ordi-
nation of two of his disciples in 891 (Ajima 1994, 143–44). The set
of five paintings of the five mantra kings from Kiburuji are
dated by inscription to 1088–1090 (GMZ, fig. 11). The Blue Fudō is an
important example of Fujiwara-period (951–1086) painting style, with
the garment designs depicted in colored line rather than in ink or cut
gold leaf (kirikane ).
The Tōji Shiki Mandara is dated to 1112. There are three
paintings extant from an original set of five great powerful bodhisat-
tvas, originally from Tōji but now housed at the Yūshihachimankō
Jūhachikain on Mt. Kōya (see color plate 10). These images are based on
the older proto-esoteric version of the Benevolent Kings Sūtra despite
being depicted in wrathful form (Ishida Hishatoyo 1969, 68; Nakano
Genzō 1981 313; Nakano Genzō in GMZ 22). The Boston Museum
of Fine Arts’ Cintāmaṇicakra-Avalokiteśvara and the Ākāśagarbha
and Peacock King from the Tokyo National Museum are all twelfth-
century Heian-period paintings (Ariga 1995, 241; 1983, 63–65).
Kamakura Period (1185–1333) and Later
The influence of the Benevolent Kings Sūtra continued into the Kama-
kura period and afterward through the Benevolent Kings Mandala. As
discussed above, the earliest renditions of the mandara were intro-
duced by Kūkai for the protection of the realm. The rendition of this
mandara as a single painting developed during the tenth or eleventh
century by different lineages of the Shingon school, primarily for ritu-
als for the secular elite (see Asabashō in BZ 37: 302; Kakuzenshō in
BZ 46: 189, 207–208, 235), but the extant images are predominately
works of the Kamakura period. This mandara has three courts with
Acalanātha in the center, the other four mantra kings in the second
court, and eight deva kings and eight bodhisattvas in the outer court
(figure 5).