964 cynthea j. bogel
of the latter two texts are linked to texts that feature the divinities
of the Diamond World mandala, deriving from the Diamond Peak
Sūtra. The iconography of ritual texts for the Benevolent Kings Sūtra
and the Diamond World mandala are precisely the two texts that
scholars concur are the textual basis for the Tōji statue program. More
emphasis should, however, be given to the Diamond Peak Sūtra, for
many of the divinities on the altar can also be linked to this text.
The Lecture Hall Altar: Interpretations and Possibilities
In ancient times, the Lecture Hall altar would surely have induced a
sense of awe, as it does today. Order and meaning are achieved by
understanding the relationships among the divinities of this karma
mandala (katsuma mandara ); recall that the 847 record
sorts them by name, and by directly addressing “the ocean assembly”—
that is, the mandala world—in concept and form. Hamada Takashi
and other scholars see the frontal deployment of the statues across
the altar as “exoteric,” not esoteric.^41 This characterization, however,
is true only in a very narrow, albeit widely accepted, definition of
mikkyō spaces as something necessarily different from those found in
pre-mikkyō Nara temples. Scholars universally conclude that “whether
[based on] just the installation program or [on the] statues themselves,
the icons’ character was that of exoteric, ritual images rather than [that
of] icons for esoteric services.”^42 Yet knowledge of representational
norms for Nara-period Buddhist altars would not aid a meaningful
apprehension of the Tōji Lecture Hall program. The icons’ “charac-
ter” is not exoteric. The 844 document quoted above specifically notes
the three groups of images: “at the altar center, Five Buddhas; to the
left, Five Bosatsu; to the right side, Five Angry Ones. In a row, three
groups.” Surely if this were an “exoteric” layout there would be little
motivation to label the groups by name and number, as is done in
several documents. Such detail goes beyond usual identifications. The
six “familiar” icons on the altar are not named in the 847 document;
moreover, the katsuma-mandara is mentioned.
either regarded as Amoghavajra’s instructions to his pupil Huiguo, or as Kūkai’s
handwritten record of the oral instruction he received from Huiguo; there are also
other opinions. See Abé 1999, 124–25, 489, n. 60; and Katsumata 1981, 182–210. See
also 41 BDJ 9: 104c–105a.
Hamada 1980, 72.
(^42) Yamada and Miyaji 1988, 73.