- 著者
-
井上 一稔
- 雑誌
- 美術研究 = The bijutsu kenkyu : the journal of art studies
- 巻号頁・発行日
- no.343, pp.1-18, 1989-02-28
Among various iconographical forms of Amitābhā, crowned Amitābhā images are classified into 1) the main image of Jōgyōdō hall at an Esoteric Buddhist temple, 2) Amitābhā of guhari colour and 3) others. The second type was painted and sculpted. While the painted images hold a crown on dressed hair, the carved ones hold a crown on curled hair, the latter being the theme of the present paper. Painted examples are all later than the Kamakura Period and the carved examples are almost exclusively from the mid-Heian Period (the tenth and eleventh centuries). Thus, it seems unnatural to the author to include both painted and carved works in the single category of “Amitābhā of guhari colour”. This is the starting point of his discussion. The author tried to find the Esoteric Buddhist significance of the carved images of “Amitābhā of guhari colour” in their iconographical characteristics, namely, the existence of the crown and their mudrā known as jōin. He was led to an idea that Chin-kang-ting-ching-kuan-tzü-tsai-wang-ju-lai-hsiuhsing-fa translated into Chinese by Amoghavajra, Chin-kang-ting-ching-yü-ch'ieh-kuan-tzŭ-tasi-wang-ju-laihsiu-hsing-fa translated by Vajrabodhi and Chingkang-ting-yü-ch’ieh-ch'ing-ching-ta-pei-wang-kuantzŭ-tsai-nien-sung-i-kuei by the same translator are the basis of the notion. These writings describe the process that perfected Buddhist devotees who perform a certain kind of meditation with the aim of spiritual incorporation with Amitābhā are finally given a crown in the vision. The author theorizes that the iconography is the sculptur tion of the imagery of Amitābhā thus considered to be attained by this kind of meditation.