Essay name: Buddhist iconography in and outside India (Study)
Author:
Purabi Gangopadhyay
Affiliation: University of Calcutta / Department of Ancient Indian History and Culture
This work aims to systematically present the development and expansion of Mahayana-Vajrayana Buddhist iconography from India to other countries, such as China, Korea, and Japan. This study includes a historical account of Indian Buddhist iconography and the integration of Brahmanical gods into the Mahayana-Vajrayana phase.
Chapter 4: Japanese Buddhist Iconography (a Comparative Study)
10 (of 101)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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and Japan.
The first group, as mentioned above, is known as
Butsu or Nyorai or Hotoke-bu, which includes the images of
various Buddhas only. The form of these images indicate
the features of Sakyamuni after his attainment of Buddhahood.
The idealised Buddhas, such as, Amitabha, Bhai峁jyaguru,
Dipankara, Mah膩vairoca峁嘺, Aksobhya, Ratnasambhava, Amoghasi-
ddhi; and Ratnaketu are included in this section. The H艒ry奴-
ji temple of the Asuka period preserves many of the note-
worthy representations of the Butsu or Nyorai images belonging
to the Nyorai-bu.
The Nara period is considered to be the golden period
in the history of Japanese religious art, especially the
Buddhist Art. The excellence in the Art of painting can be
well be studied from the H艒ry怒-ji, murals.鹿 (Unfortunately
the original paintings were destroyed by a fire in 1949).
L
On the walls of the golden Hall of the H艒ry奴-ji
temple there were the painting of Amida or Amitabha Buddha
and the accessory figures of the deity were of Bodhisattva
Avalokite艣vara and Mahasthamapr膩pta. Buddha Ratnasambhava,
Bhai峁jyaguru and Sakyamuni appeared on the other walls.
There are, however, different views regarding the identifica-
tion of the Buddhas of the other walls. We quote below the
The well-known H艒ry奴-ji temple was built near 'Nara' in
607 A.D. The famous technique of paintings on the walls
of the H艒ry奴-ji resembles the style of the paintings of
the cave of Ajanta in India.
