. the tji lecture hall statue mandala 961
probably based on the version of the Benevolent Kings Sūtra known
during the Nara period. In the next year Kūkai organized the Benevo-
lent Kings service, Ninnō-e , at Mount Kōya (Tenchō 3.1.11).
Kūkai performed the mikkyō rite of the Benevolent Kings Sūtra, the
Ninnōkyō-hō , for the first time in the ninth month of 812
at an unknown location. The Record of the Ninnōkyō-hō cites a second
occurrence in 822, at either Tōji or Takaosanji, “for the protection of
the nation,”^34 but no details of the ritual performance are known. This
was in the same year that Kūkai gave abhiṣeka to the retired emperor
Heizei, possibly at the new Abhiseka Hall at Tōdaiji in Nara.̣^35 In 824,
Kūkai performed an esoteric abhiseka ̣ for Saga.^36
Kūkai performed abhiṣeka outside and within the capital, but the
sites are not always recorded. Jichie’s letter to the priests at Qing-
longsi , where Kūkai studied in Chang’an, states that the lay
and ordained men and women who received abhiṣeka from the master
numbered in the tens of thousands, but the actual number will likely
never be known.^37 All of these activities were conducted for state ben-
efit. Kūkai’s magnum opus of 830, The Ten Abiding Stages of the Secret
Mind of the Mandala, was completed when the statues in the Tōji Lec-
ture Hall were underway. It repeatedly notes that “erecting a mandala
altar, receiving abhiṣeka there, and having the clergy perform homa
(goma ) and other esoteric rituals to benefit his nation constitute
the most meritorious acts for a king.”^38 Abhiṣeka rites and rites related
to the Benevolent Kings Sūtra were distinct, but both deployed man-
dala altars, both called out the divinities of the mandala universe, and
both concerned the same goals—including protection of the state.
The Ninnō-e rite associated with the Benevolent Kings Sūtra widely
conducted during the Nara period continued to be popular long after
Kūkai imported the “new translation” by Amoghavajra. One of many
performances of the Ninnō-e took place in 839, the year the Tōji
(^34) For the 812 occurrence, see BDJ 5:4104c (Kōnin 3, ninth month), which cites the
Ninnōkyō-hō kinrei. This date also corresponds with the ordinations given by Kūkai to
Saichō and others at Takaosanji. For the 822 occurrence, see the Ninnōkyō-hō nikki.
(^35) Kūkai’s text for recitation of the ordination is the Heizei tennō kanjōmon, KZ 2:
157-172.
(^36) The text is informally known as the Tōji denpō-e hyōhaku, in Tōbōki 6, Hōbō-ge,
ZZGR, 12: 122a and reproduced in NCKSS-jys 1: 65 (shiryō 16).
(^37) Tsuikai bunsō 5, KZ 5: 391–92; translation from Abé 1999, 42.
(^38) Abé 1999, 332, which cites KZ 1: 200, 206. The essay was a response to Emperor
Junna’s request for an explanation of the mikkyō teachings.