Kongoukai hachijuuisson mandara　金剛界八十一尊曼荼羅

KEY WORD :　art history / iconography

Lit. Eighty-one Deity Mandala of the Adamantine Realm. A variety of *Kongoukai mandara 金剛界曼荼羅 which are the major mandala of Esoteric Buddhism mikkyou 密教, representing the two realms, the Adamantine and the matrix or womb realm. A mandala *mandara 曼荼羅 composed of 81 deities, consisting of the Five Wisdom Tathagatas *gochi nyorai 五智如来, Sixteen Great Bodhisattvas juuroku daibosatsu 十六大菩薩, Four Paramita Bodhisattvas shiharamitsu bosatsu 四波羅蜜菩薩, Eight Offering Bodhisattvas hachikuyou bosatsu 八供養菩薩, Sixteen Deities of the Auspicious Aeon gengou juurokuson 賢劫十六尊, gods of the four elements shidaijin 四大神, twenty gods of the heavens nijitten 二十天 and four *myouou 明王. There are also some examples in which the 1,000 Buddhas of the "auspicious aeon" gengou 賢劫 (Sk: bhadrakalpa) are depicted in the outer periphery together with the gengou juurokuson. This mandala corresponds to the central assembly, Joushin-e 成身会 of the *Kue mandara 九会曼荼羅, but whereas in the Kue mandara the four Buddhas other than *Dainichi 大日 among the gochi nyorai are depicted as Tathagatas, in this mandala they all assume the form of bodhisattvas; in addition, the deities are seated on animals and there are also considerable differences in iconographical detail and in the selection of deities. The Kongoukai hachijuuissoin mandara was brought from China to Japan by Ennin 円仁 (794-864), and has been used primarily in the Esoteric branch of the Tendai 天台 sect (Taimitsu 台密), where it has often been used together with the *Taizoukai mandara 胎蔵界曼荼羅 as one of the two mandalas forming the *Ryoukai mandara 両界曼荼羅 which are used to illuminate the two basic scriptures of Esoteric Buddhism. This mandala was, however, also used in the Shingon 真言 sect, and there are in addition instances of Taimitsu Ryoukai mandara in which the Kue mandara is used instead of the Kongoukai hachijuuisson mandara (e.g., Shitennouj 四天王寺, Osaka); it is therefore incorrect to consider all examples of this mandala to be connected with the Tendai sect. Representative of extant examples of this mandala are those kept at the Nezu 根津 Museum in Tokyo and Taizanji 太山寺 in Hyougo prefecture, both of Tendai origin. Of these, the former is originally from Kongourinji 金剛輪寺 in Shiga prefecture, where it is thought to have constituted a pair of Ryoukai mandara together with a Taizoukai mandara no longer extant.

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