nijuugo bosatsu　二十五菩薩

KEY WORD :　art history / iconography

Lit. 25 bodhisattvas *bosatsu 菩薩. The bosatsu that are believed to accompany *Amida 阿弥陀 when he leads a dying person to the Pure Land joudo 浄土 and then offers welcome. These 25 bodhisattvas are first mentioned in the JUUOUJOU AMIDA BUKKOKUKYOU 十往生阿弥陀仏国経, an apocryphal sutra thought to have been composed in China, which states that they will protect the devotee at all times. But in Japan, with the gradual spread of the Pure Land faith from about the 10c onwards, they came to be associated specifically with the belief that Amida and his entourage come to welcome the dying person to the Pure Land. They appear in many depictions of this scene *raigou-zu 来迎図, and especially famous are the triptych now kept at Yuushi Hachimankou Juuhakkain 有志八幡講十八箇院 (Mt. Kouya 高野; mid-12c) and the depiction of a so-called 'swift welcome' hayaraigou 早来迎, kept at Chion-in 知恩院 (late 13c) in Kyoto. As for representations in statuary form, there is a set of 26 seated, wooden images of these 25 bodhisattvas with Amida at Sokujouin 即成院 in Kyoto. They also figure in a version of the Amida mandara 阿弥陀曼荼羅 brought to Japan by Eun 恵運 (798-869), a Chinese monk of the Kegon 華厳 sect who is most remembered for his reclassification of the methods of teaching the sutras. Their names are as follows: *Kannon 観音, *Seishi 勢至, Yakuou 薬王, Yakujou 薬上, *Fugen 普賢, Houjizaiou 法自在王, Shishiku 獅子吼, Darani 陀羅尼, Byakuzouou 白象王, *Kokuuzou 虚空蔵, Tokuzou 徳蔵, Houzou 宝蔵, Konzou 金蔵, Kongouzou 金剛蔵, Koumyouou 光明王, Sankaie 山海慧, Kegon'ou 華厳王, Shuhouou 衆宝王, Gakkouou 月光王, Nisshouou 日照王, Sanmaiou 三昧王, Joujizaiou 定自在王, Daijizaiou 大自在王, Byakuzouou 白象王, Daiitokuou 大威徳王, and Muhenshin 無辺身.

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