908 karen j. mack
the Nara period as a main image of a ritual for memory retention
(gumonji-hō, ), based on the Ākāśagarbha sūtra ( Kokūzō
gumonji hō , T. 1145) (MJ 205).
Built by First Lady Kōmyō (701–760), the Hokkeji nun-
nery in Nara, with a main image of the eleven-headed Avalokiteśvara,
was made the head of the national nunneries by imperial edict some-
time in the Tenpyō Shōhō era (749–757). Kōmyō, empress to Emperor
Shōmu, inherited the estate from her father, Fujiwara no Fuhito (659–
720), and converted it into a temple in 747 (Miwa 1980, 22). There is a
fair amount of contention regarding whether the present image dates
to the eighth or ninth centuries, but it has stylistic commonalities with
both the eighth-century sculptures at Tōshōdaiji and the late-eighth–
century Bhaisajyaguru (Yakushi Nyorai, ̣ ) at Jingoji (Iwasa
2004, 39). The sculpture is traditionally described as having been made
in the image of Kōmyō (Iwasa 2004, 37). However, it is unlikely that
this image was typical of those at the provincial national nunneries (de
Visser 1935, 641, 650). Amitābha and the Western Pure Land appear
in the Lotus Sūtra, which would explain the relation of these sculp-
tures to the national Hokkeji nunneries.
A year before the 741 edict to build the national temples, there was
an imperial edict to build statues of Avalokiteśvara, probably not eso-
teric, and supply them to the provinces along with copies of the Lotus
Sūtra (Robert K. Reischauer 1967, 186–87). These sculptures may or
may not have been later housed at the national nunneries. In 761, a
jōroku size Amitābha sculpture was installed in the Pure Land
Hall (Jōdoin ) at the Hokkeji nunnery on behalf of the deceased
First Lady Kōmyō, and in the same year Amitābha triads were com-
manded to be installed in all the provincial national nunneries (de
Visser 1935, 641, 650).
Likewise, the Amoghapāśa Avalokiteśvara (Fukū-kensaku Kan-
non ) presently installed in the Hokkedō (Sangatsudō
) at Tōdaiji is also associated with First Lady Kōmyō. It was
built in the Tenpyō era for a Lotus Sūtra Service (renge e, )
held in 746, and was installed in the Hokkedō after it was built a few
years later (Asai Kazuharu 2004, 529). It is recorded that a sculpture of
Amoghapāśa Avalokiteśvara was installed in the Kenjaku Hall
built at Tōshōdaiji in 759 (de Visser 1935, 644; citing Fusō ryakki bas-
sui, 573). This sculpture may possibly be either the extant Siṃhanāda
Bodhisattva (Shishiku bosatsu, ) as is traditionally