Kannongyō ryakuzukai 観音経略図解

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Commentary by Sherry D. Fowler

Posted August 31, 2016

The demand for printed books burgeoned in nineteenth-century Japan, and this included illustrated Buddhist texts for a mass readership, in particular, publications on the bodhisattva Kannon 観音 (Skr. Avalokiteśvara). One example is the single-volume Kannongyō ryakuzukai (Kannon sutra with abbreviated illustrations and annotations), which bears the subtitle Hayayomi eshō (Illustrated volume for rapid reading). Published in Edo in 1862, its editor, Shōtei Kinsui (1795–1862), explained in the preface that the text was annotated with explanations and glossed so that “village children, fishermen, wives, and daughters all” (村童漁父また婦女家女の輩) would be able to read it and benefit. The ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Isai, who worked under the celebrated master Katsushika Hokusai, contributed the finely detailed illustrations. The first shows Shakyamuni, accompanied by two bodhisattvas and sixteen arhats, preaching the Lotus sutra 法華経 (J. Hokekyō) on Vulture Peak 霊鷲山 (J. Ryōjusen). Other images include historical tales that refer to Kannon or to the Lotus sutra.

The Lotus sutra was introduced to Japan in the seventh century. Its twenty-fifth chapter Fumonbon 普門品 (Universal gateway chapter), which is also referred to as Kannongyō 観音経 (Kannon sutra), describes the thirty-three forms Kannon can assume in order to save sentient beings. It also elucidates the plentiful benefits that Kannon can bestow upon believers, such as being rescued from drowning, evading evil bandits, avoiding poison, and not falling off a cliff, as well as other perils.

The Kannongyō ryakuzukai text is divided into two horizontal sections. The lower section contains commentary on the Kannongyō—its passages are highlighted in bold—alongside other relevant texts. The first part across the top section comprises a text titled Kannongyō hiken 観音経秘密鍵 (Hidden key to the Kannon sutra), purportedly by the Shingon Buddhist prelate Kūkai 空海 (774–835), who is also known posthumously as Kōbō Daishi 弘法大師. Following this are sections on each of the major Kannon pilgrimage routes in Japan: Saigoku, Bandō, and Chichibu. A numerically ordered description for each temple provides the distance from the previous stop, the temple name, the type of Kannon icon enshrined, and a poetic verse (goeika 御詠歌) about the location. Temples in the more localized Kannon pilgrimage routes from Kyoto (Rakuyō) and Osaka (Naniwa) temples are listed afterward with fewer details.

Selected readings

Hayami Takusu 速水侑, ed., Kannon shinkō jiten 『観音信仰事典』 (Tokyo: Ebisu Kōshō Shuppan, 2000).

Matsubara Tetsuaki 松原哲明, Jisshū Kannon Bosatsu no okyō 『実修観音菩薩のお経』 (Tokyo: Gakken, 2010).

Burton Watson, trans., The Lotus Sutra (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993).

Copies in other collections

Bukkyō University, Kyoto

Tenri University, Tenri Central Library, Nara Prefecture

Tokyo University

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor