Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia

. the tji lecture hall statue mandala 967

Figure 13. Five Wisdom Buddhas stele. Aichi Prefectural Ceramics Research
Institute. Tang dynasty. Stone (Bogel, Glance, 2009, 98, pl. 4.24).

Such an arrangement may also explain the presence of Bonten and

Taishakuten: Bonten is not paired with Taishakuten in any of the tex-

tual sources for the altar, a fact that has perplexed scholars. Takata

Osamu explains the presence of Bonten as an addition that mimics the

“exoteric” arrangement of the two on Nara-period altars; he and oth-

ers note that it creates a symmetrical visual pairing, one on each side

of the altar.^44 One possibility is that the pair, with the Four Guardians,

form a border around the edge, in the manner of a mandala.

There is excellent visual evidence for Kūkai’s newly imported Benev-

olent Kings Sūtra. Kamakura-period drawings (zuzō) in ink on paper

(^44) Takata 1967, 29.