. landmarks of esoteric art in japan 921
There are two main variations of the Benevolent Kings Mandala
in painted form (see Kakuzenshō in BZ 46: 204 and 216). One has
the east at the top for the increasing-prosperity ritual (sōyaku hō,
) (Daigoji version) and the other has north at the top for use
in the averting-calamity ritual (sokusai hō, ) (Jōdoji, Hiroshima
version) (FMZ 31–32, figs. 42 and 43; Hayashi On 2002, fig. 50).
Other mandara paintings with images of Acalanātha include the
Sonshō Mandara and the Maitreya Mandala
. The Sonshō Mandara has a circle of nine deities, in the center of
which is Mahāvairocana surrounded by the eight other buddhas mani-
festing the uṣṇīṣa wisdom of the Buddha. Below, Trailokya (Gōzanze,
) is typically placed to the right in a half-moon, and Acalanātha
is in a triangle to the left. There are a large number of extant works,
one of which is the Kamakura-period painting from Jingoji. There is
also a sculptural rendition of this mandara at the Kongōji in Osaka,
with a Fujiwara-period sculpture of Mahāvairocana flanked by four-
teenth-century sculptures of Acalanātha and Trailokya. The Maitreya
Mandala has Maitreya in the center surrounded by eight bodhisattvas;
below Trailokya is in a half-moon to the right and Acalanātha is in a
triangle to the left. A rare example is the Kamakura-period painting
from Daigoji (FMZ 40–43).
There are as well a number of other mandaras dedicated to other
deities, such as the Aizen Mandara from the Zuishin’in
temple, the Taigensui Mandara from Daigoji, and
the Seven Star Mandala with a central image
of Cintāmaṇicakra-Avalokiteśvara from the Gumyōji in Kanagawa,
among many others. The Taigensui Mandara was introduced to Japan
by Jōkyō (d. 866) in 840 and was used in a ritual held at the
imperial palace simultaneously with the Latter Seven Days Ritual from
851 (Hayashi On 2002, 69). While the majority of these mandaras may
have originated in the Heian period, the extant images are primarily
from the Kamakura period or later, implying an increase in produc-
tion at this time.
Mandara, a transliteration of the Sanskrit term maṇḍala, does not
carry exactly the same meaning as the Sanskrit in Japan. The term
was likely introduced by Kūkai, and by the tenth century it could
to refer to any painting depicting multiple deities, but establishing
when this term was extended to include paintings of Shintō deities
and shrine compounds is problematic (Hamada Takashi 1980, 77). A
good example of the use of the term mandara to refer to an exoteric