katsuma mandara　羯磨曼荼羅

KEY WORD :　art history / iconography

A form of mandala *mandara 曼荼羅 in which the deities are represented by means of cast-metal, wooden or clay images in three dimensions, as opposed to the more usual two dimensional forms. The term katsuma mandara is a transcription of the Sanskrit; karma mandala, meaning action mandara, and it constitutes one of the four types of mandara *shishu mandara 四種曼荼羅; whereas the daimandara 大曼荼羅 (great mandara), depicting the deities in their physical form, represents the Buddhas' mystery of the body shinmitsu 身密, in Japan the katsuma mandara is considered to symbolize the Buddhas' activities for the salvation of sentient beings . In the case of Japan, 21 images (of which fifteen of the original images are extant) based on the *Kongoukai mandara 金剛界曼荼羅 and Ninnougyou gohou shoson-zu 仁王経五方諸尊図 (Diagram of the Deities of the Five Directions in the NINNOUGYOU) were erected by *Kuukai 空海 (774-835) in Touji *Koudou 東寺講堂, Kyoto, and thereafter three-dimensional mandalas were produced throughout the Heian period. There is said to have been a mandala hall mandaradou 曼荼羅堂 containing a three-dimensional *Hokuto mandara 北斗曼荼羅 at Hosshouji 法勝寺, Kyoto, founded by Emperor Shirakawa 白河 in 1077, and a hall named Ryoukaidou 両界堂 containing complete images of the deities of the *Ryoukai mandara 両界曼荼羅 at Chuusonji 中尊寺 (12c) in Iwate prefecture, but neither remains today. An extant example of a katsuma mandara is the small three-dimensional work representing deities from the Kongoukai mandara (with the *gochi nyorai 五智如来 and four paramita bodhisattvas shiharamitsu bosatsu 四波羅蜜菩薩 shown in their physical form and the other deities represented by symbolic objects) that was unearthed from a sutra mound kyouzuka 経塚 at Nachi 那智 in Wakayama prefecture.

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