. landmarks of esoteric art in japan 907Figure 1. Iconographic drawings for Benevolent Kings Ceremonies, top
register. Twelfth century. New York Public Library, Spencer Collection.
graphical drawing depicts five benevolent-looking bodhisattvas stand-
ing on lotuses and holding defining attributes in accordance with the
older version of the sūtra.
It is uncertain what images may have been installed originally in the
national temples. In 737 it was commanded that images of a Śākyamuni
triad be built in each province and lectures were to be given on the
new esoteric version of the Golden Light Sūtra by Yijing ( , 635–
713), properly called the Victorious Kings of the Golden Light Sūtra
(Konkōmyō saishō ō kyō, ; T. 665; hereafter Victorious
Kings Sūtra) (Miwa 1980, 23–24). That same year, the first Victorious
Kings of the Golden Light Sūtra Service (Konkōmyō saishō ō kyō e,
), based on the new version of the text, was held at
the imperial palace by the imperial vow of Emperor Shōmu to protect
the nation (de Visser 1935, 436, 447, 471; citing Shoku nihongi 12:
212). (The first lecture at the palace on the earlier version of the text
had taken place in 680 [BDJ (1974) 2:1180a].) According to Emperor
Shōmu’s vow, the main image was Rocana flanked by Avalokiteśvara
(Kanzeon ) and Ākāśagarbha (Kokūzō ), accompanied
by the four deva kings (catvāro mahā-rājikāḥ; shitennō ) (MDJ
1968–1970 2: 587; BDJ 2: 1180a; de Visser 1935, 473–74).
In 766 or 768, this service was instituted as a yearly event called the
Gosaie held at the Daigokuden (Great Hall of State)
in the imperial palace during the second week of the New Year, from
the eighth to fourteenth days (de Visser 1935, 447, 473; citing Shoku
nihongi 12: 212; BDJ 2: 1180a). Ākāśagarbha flanked Rocana as a rep-
resentation of that buddha’s original vow of the two virtues of merit
and wisdom. Ākāśagarbha also became popular among monastics in