Womb World Mandala (Taizōkai mandara) - Reflections of the Buddha

Womb World Mandala (Taizōkai Mandala) 6
The Barnet-Burto Collection mandala, executed in fine gold lines on indigo-dyed silk, is an excellent
example of balance between the geometrical symmetry of the architectural structure and the profusion
of varied figures. More than four hundred deities are given a convincing sense of volume despite their
simplified contours; the softly curving strokes are able to convey a sense of the deities’ dynamic
movement and interaction in the densely populated space, which is delineated more abruptly by the
application of cut-gold leaf or foil used for the major horizontal and vertical lines separating the
different courts, and the central lotus petals. 18 Aside from its obvious material value and signification of
preciousness, gold represents the perfection of the Buddha’s great wisdom, and the indigo-blue
background represents the lapis lazuli, the stone from which the Buddha’s palace is built. 19 Many
examples of the Two Worlds mandala are executed in polychrome; in this example, however, the only
colored pigment is the red line that signifies compassion that is painted around the central lotus section
(discussed below). It is rare to have works in gold and indigo in this state of preservation and scale from
the Kamakura period (1185-1333) or earlier outside of the major Esoteric temples in Japan.
In the center of the mandala, a fully opened eight-petalled lotus flower holds the Buddha Vairocana,
jeweled and garlanded and in princely raiment, surrounded by eight petals on which are seated four
Buddhas and four Bodhisattvas, together representing the nine kinds of consciousnesses. As the
mandala radiates outwards from the center, the deities and the meanings they represent become
progressively more concerned with the phenomenal world, that is, with the practical functioning of
knowledge and the senses rather than with their conceptual purity. 20 Although the iconography of each
18 John Rosenfield and Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis, Journey of the Three Jewels: Japanese Buddhist Paintings from
Western Collections. New York: Tuttle (1979), p. 76.
The Takao mandala is a famous large-scale example from the ninth century of a mandala of that also utilizes cut
gold and silver foil on precious purple-dyed silk. A comparable eleventh century example is held in the Kojima-ji
子 島 寺 in Nara, but even smaller scale versions of mandala produced by this method are rare (Ariga Yoshitaka in
Buddha’s Smile - Masterpieces of Japanese Buddhist Art. Tokyo: London Gallery Ltd. (2002) cat. 99). Buddhist
sutras had been copied in gold onto indigo dyed paper and silk from the eighth century, and it seems that the
same aesthetic is at work in these mandala, and likely the same craftsmen were involved in their production. For
an example in China, see the Guanyin Chapter from an Illustrated Lotus Sutra also in this exhibition.
19 As described in the Visualization Sutra 観 無 量 寿 経 (Japanese, Kanmuryōjūkyō).
20 John Rosenfield and Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis, Journey of the Three Jewels: Japanese Buddhist Paintings from
Western Collections. New York: Tuttle (1979), p. 76. Some deities, such as the bodhisattvas Jizō and Kannon, are
repeated in different manifestations at different locations throughout the mandala to represent their different
attributes in different situations and worlds.
The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts
Reflections of the Buddha