Chikou mandara　智光曼荼羅

KEY WORD :　art history / iconography

Also referred to as the First mandala. A small wooden painting. The oldest of the Three Joudo Mandalas *joudo sanmandara 浄土三曼荼羅. It has the simplest composition of the three, for unlike the *Taima mandara 当麻曼荼羅 and *Seikai mandara 清海曼荼羅, it does not include scenes from the preface of the KANMURYOUJUKYOU 観無量寿経 , in the left, right and bottom courts (see *Kangyou hensou 観経変相). Traditionally said to have been envisioned by the Sanron 三論 school monk Chikou 智光 (709-ca.790) from Gangouji 元興寺. The miraculous story be hide the mandala, related in such texts as Yoshishige Yasutane's 慶滋保胤 NIHON OUJOU GOKURAKUKI 日本往生極楽記 (late 10c) and Eikan's 永観 OUJOU SHUUIN 往生拾因 is as follows: Chikou shared a room with a monk named Raikou 頼光 at Gangouji, where they practiced religious devotions. After Raikou died, Chikou prayed for his friend and learned that he had been reborn in *Amida's 阿弥陀 Western Paradise gokuraku joudo 極楽浄土. Chikou longed for rebirth in Amida's Pure Land. Raikou appeared to him in a dream and told him he should practice inner visualization of Amida and his Pure Land; Amida himself showed him how by revealing to him a miniature Paradise in the palm of his hand. Upon awakening, Chikou had an artist paint what he had seen. *KAKUZENSHOU 覚禅鈔, a collection of iconographical drawings by the Shingon 真言 monk Kakuzen 覚禅 (1143-1212) dating to around 1200, indicates the original mandala was a small painting about 30cm (one shaku 尺) square. This was lost to fire in the Muromachi period. Two extant example at Gokurakubou 極楽坊, Gangouji in Nara, are a large (182cm square) wooden panel painting (early Kamakura period) and small painting (30cm square) on silk in a miniature shrine *zushi 厨子 (early Muromachi period).

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