Aizen mandara　愛染曼荼羅

KEY WORD :　art history / iconography

A variety of *besson mandara 別尊曼荼羅, or *mandara 曼荼羅 centered on one particular deity, besson 別尊, in this case centered on *Aizen Myouou 愛染明王. There are several varieties of Aizen mandara, but the most common type is that consisting of seventeen deities. Aizen Myouou appears at the center surrounded in the four cardinal and four intermediate directions by the four bodhisattvas *bosatsu 菩薩, --Yoku 欲 (Sk: Vajramanodbhava), Soku 触 (Sk: Vajrakelikila), Ai 愛 (Sk: Vajranismara) and Man 慢 (Sk: Vajragarva)--and their consorts, while the four guardian bodhisattvas, shishou bosatsu 四摂菩薩, and the four outer offering bodhisattvas (Incense, Flower, Lamp, and Perfume) appear in the outer enclosure. This is identical to the Rishu-e 理趣会 of the *Kue mandara 九会曼荼羅, except for the fact that the central deity has been changed from kongou satta 金剛薩た to Aizen Myouou. A representative example of this type of Aizen mandara is one kept at the Nezu 根津 Art Museum in Tokyo. In the version preserved at Daigoji 醍醐寺 in Kyoto, the two enclosures have been increased to three enclosures, whereas in the seventeen-deity version kept at Zuishin-in 随心院 in Kyoto (an important cultural property), the disposition of the deities differs somewhat from the above two versions, based on the KONGOUOU BOSATSU HIMITSU NENJU GIKI 金剛王菩薩秘密念誦儀軌. In contrast, the arrangement of the deities in the version kept at Taizanji 太山寺 in Hyougo prefecture differs completely from the above seventeen-deity varieties: the central enclosure contains the four *myouou 明王 / *Gousanze Myouou 降三世明王, *Gundari Myouou 軍荼利明王, *Daiitoku Myouou 大威徳明王, and *Kongouyasha Myouou 金剛夜叉明王 / and four youthful attendants *douji 童子, while the outer enclosure contains the twelve guardian deities *juuniten 十二天. Iconographical manuals mention several other types of Aizen mandara, but polychrome examples of these have yet to be discovered .

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