922 karen j. mack
painting with multiple deities is the Taima Mandara, which is actually
an illustration of the Visualization Sūtra (Kanmuryōju kyō,
, T. 365), properly called a Kangyō hensōzu in Japa-
nese. The original from Taimadera is an eighth-century tapestry; it is
generally thought that the technology of the weave used for this tap-
estry was not yet available in Japan, and the work is likely a Chinese
import. Amitābha’s Pure Land is depicted in the center with the story
of Vaidehī in a column to the left, the thirteen visualizations in a col-
umn to the right, and the nine stages of rebirth in a register at the bot-
tom. The replication of this image became popular in the Kamakura
period after Hōnen (1133–1212), founder of the Pure Land sect
in Japan, rediscovered it.
Early prototypes in Japan of buddhas manifesting alternate deities
include the Rocana bronze sculpture at Tōdaiji with manifestations
of multiple images of Śākyamuni on the petals, and the sculptures at
Tōji where the buddhas have alternate identities as mantra kings and
bodhisattvas according to the “three cakra body” (sanrinshin, )
concept propounded in the commentaries of the Benevolent Kings
Sūtra and the Diamond Peak Sūtra. The earliest extant paintings of
Shintō deities depicted in their Buddhist manifestations appeared
in the Kamakura period. One of the earliest is the Kasuga Mandara
dated to 1300 by Kanshun (n.d.) at the Yuki Museum in Osaka.
Above a landscape painting of the shrine grounds, five Buddhist dei-
ties are depicted in roundels representing the five Shintō deities of the
Kasuga shrine. Another type of Kasuga Mandara has the Buddhist
deities depicted in a roundel above the image of the sacred deer of
Kasuga, such as the Kamakura-period Kasuga Deer Mandala at the
Nara National Museum.
Through the worship of itinerant ascetics, the Ōmine mountains
came to be associated with the Two-Realm Mandala, the Kumano
area with the Womb Mandala, and the Kinpu mountain with the
Diamond Mandala. One type of Kumano Mandara depicts the eight
main deities of Kumano in their Buddhist manifestations within the
eight-petal lotus of the Womb Mandala. The three main avatars (gon-
gen ) of Kumano are depicted, with Amitābha in the center,
Bhaisajyaguru to the right, and the thousand-arm Avalokiteśvara to ̣
the left, supplemented with Śākyamuni above representing the Kanjō
Jūgosho shrine. Between these figures are depicted the five subsidiary
shrine deities as Cintāmaṇicakra-Avalokiteśvara (Nyoirin Kannon
), Ks itigarbha (Jizō ̣ ), the eleven-headed Avalokiteśvara