976 cynthea j. bogel
Imported drawings or paintings likely served as a basis for not only
the appearance of the Lecture Hall statues but also for the creation of
a ritual mandala. In effect, the nature of the importation (“Benevolent
Kings Five Directions Illustrations” iconographic drawings, few if any
paintings of the relevant mandalas, no statue groups), and the fact
that Kūkai was transmitting the rites of the Benevolent Kings Sūtra,
the Vajrasekhara sūtra, among others, to priests at Tōji, means that
the Tōji Lecture Hall altar had a strong visual, conceptual, and per-
formative parallel, at least for the practitioner, to the practice of the
rituals associated with the divinities on the altar, even if the altar or
the Lecture Hall itself was not used for the ritual. It is also important
to remember that the priests studied the drawings and received oral
instruction about them.
The 922 Fukanreitōki drawing is a simple diagram, providing names
for the divinities, sometimes in shorthand. Today’s altar plan differs
from the 922 drawing in several ways. The pentads of the Five Wisdom
Buddhas and Five Great Bodhisattvas are rotated one position, or 45
degrees, counterclockwise. These and other differences are difficult to
explain, but the 922 drawing is logical in that the placement of each
divinity in each pentad is in a corresponding and correct (rotated)
directional position (e.g., the deities of the south all appear in the
southwest position. etc.), so it is most likely the original arrangement
for the altar of statues.
At the top of the 922 diagram (figure 19), below the character for
“north,” is written “Benevolent Kings Sūtra mandala” (Ninnōkyō man-
dara ). This label is probably contemporaneous with the
diagram, but it is possible that it is a later interpretation. If a contem-
poraneous notation, it suggests that the altar of statues was considered
to represent such a mandala. It also strongly suggests that monks at
the time the notation was made “interpreted” the site. The making of
the mandala—setting up the platform, painting a picture of the deities,
then adorning it with vases, implements, and canopies—is the first
activity of a complex sequence of prescriptions for the rite provided in
Amoghavajra’s commentary, the Ninnō nenju giki. Below each of the
three pentads shown in the 922 Fukanreitōki diagram (see figure 19)
- Shinjaku was the third prince born to Emperor Uda (r. 887–897), and his
title was Imperial Prince of the Law (Hōsan no miya). “Kōdōzuyō,” Tōbōki 1, ZZGR
12: 11a. The Fukanreitōki diagram is also included in the Kakuzenshō.