Kōya Daishi gyōjō zuga 高野大師行状図画

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Commentary by Sherry D. Fowler

Posted September 1, 2016

Kōya Daishi gyōjō zuga (Illustrated biography of the “Kōya Master”) deals with the life of the Japanese Buddhist prelate Kūkai 空海 (774–835), who is also recognized by his posthumous name Kōbō Daishi 弘法大師. He is also known as the “Kōya Master” (高野大師) because he established a training monastery on Mount Kōya in Kii province (present-day Wakayama Prefecture). Kūkai went to China in 804 to learn esoteric Buddhist teachings and stayed until 806. In Chang’an, Master Huiguo 惠果 (746–805) taught Kūkai the esoteric teachings that he brought back to Japan, where he introduced the Shingon school of Buddhism. Kūkai would become a cultural icon, and with many feats and miracles attributed to him, the monk’s hagiography is replete with fantastic episodes. A number of these are represented in Kōya Daishi gyōjō zuga.

The printed version of Kōya Daishi gyōjō zuga—the Pulverer copy included—is based on the hugely popular tradition of similarly titled painted illustrated handscrolls made beginning in the thirteenth century. One excellent example is the luxurious fourteenth-century set of scrolls owned by the Kyoto temple Tōji. [1] Although the text and images of Kūkai’s life story evolved over the centuries, the pattern of events depicted remained relatively consistent. The tradition of painted scrolls illustrating this theme continued with color woodblock-printed scrolls, such as the eighteenth-century handscroll set that is housed at Hōjuin on Mount Kōya. [2]

The book lists the events of Kūkai’s life as subheadings within the table of contents that appears before the preface. The subheadings are then repeated before the corresponding text in each volume, and most sections have one or more accompanying illustrations.

The story of Kūkai’s life begins in volume one with an account of his auspicious birth at the temple Zentsūji (善通寺) in Shikoku. Another of the numerous remarkable events in Kūkai’s life is in the first section of volume eight, which shows the famous rainmaking match held in 824 (Kenchō 1) with the Shingon monk Shubin (守敏). Following seven days of rainmaking rituals, Kūkai summoned a great dragon at Shinsen’en pond in Kyoto (Heiankyō). He ended the drought with a desperately needed downpour and defeated Shubin. The illustration runs across three pages and depicts Kūkai at the shore intoning the rites. His disciples, other monks, and courtiers look on in wonderment as a dragon emerges from the water. The text is based on Kūkai’s alleged final testament to his disciples, Goyuigō (御遺告), which describes the dragon as “a snake measuring nine shaku [273 cm] with a golden snake of eight sun [24 cm] on its head” (金色ノ八寸ノ蛇。長九尺計蛇ナル。頂ニノレリ。). This corresponds with the illustration in the book Kōya Daishi gyōjō zuga. [3]

Volume nine relates the tale of Kūkai’s entombment on Mount Kōya and his miraculous status of residing there in eternal meditation. [4] Volume ten covers events that occurred after Kūkai’s death, including an imperial pilgrimage in the last section that concludes with a scene at the Mount Kōya graveyard.

The preface explains that Kūkai’s biography should be shared (and illustrated) because he lived four hundred years earlier. Accordingly, the text purports to be from the thirteenth century, which is four hundred years before the date of publication. The preface also discusses the glory of the Shingon tradition and its ability to protect the country. It closes by extolling the rewards of reading the text. Those who have faith in it will go to Tuṣita Heaven, and even those who disparage it will, in a twist of karmic fate (J. gyakuen 逆縁), be tied to the palace of the dharma realm.

The Pulverer impression, and every other extant copy of this work, lacks information about the author, publisher, or date, but the carving style points to a production date sometime in the seventeenth century. The National Diet Library in Tokyo records that its copy is from the Shōhō era (1644–47). The ten volumes of the National Diet Library are bound into five sections, while the ten individual volumes of the Pulverer copy have been rebound with the more recent dark blue covers. A special feature of the Pulverer copy is that volume two is hand-colored. A comparison with the same volume in other collections indicates that the first two pages of the first illustration are missing in the Pulverer copy.

Selected readings

Sherry D. Fowler, Murōji: Rearranging Art and History at a Japanese Buddhist Temple (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2005).

Izutsu Shinryū, ed., Sacred Treasures of Mount Kōya: The Art of Japanese Shingon Buddhism (Honolulu: Koyasan Reihokan Museum, 2002).

Komatsu Shigemi 小松茂美, ed., Kōbō Daishi gyōjō ekotoba 「弘法大師行状絵詞」, vols. 5 and 6, Zoku Nihon emaki taisei 『続日本絵卷大成』 (Tokyo: Chūō Kōronsha, 1982–83).

Miyeko Murase, Emaki: Narrative Scrolls from Japan (New York: Asia Society, 1983).

George J. Tanabe, “The Founding of Mount Kōya and Kūkai’s Eternal Meditation,” in Religions of Japan in Practice, ed. George J. Tanabe (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999), 354–59.

Umezu Jirō 梅津次郎, “Kōya Daishi gyōjō zuga” 「高野大師行状図画, in Kodai hanga 『古代版画』, vol. 1, Nihon hanga bijutsu zenshū 『日本版画美術全集』, ed. Ishida Mosaku (Tokyo: Kōdansha, 1961), 201–2.

Copies in other collections

Columbia University Libraries

National Diet Library (NDL), Tokyo

National Institute of Japanese Literature (NIJL), Tokyo

University of California, Berkeley Library

University of California, Los Angeles Library

Waseda University Library, Tokyo

[1] Komatsu 1982–83, vols. 5 and 6. For some scenes discussed in English, see Murase 1983, 148–51. Other collections housing painted handscroll examples of this subject include the Honolulu Museum of Art, Freer Gallery of Art, and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

[2] Izutsu 2002, 45, 155, 179.

[3] Fowler 2005, 35–36, 47–49.

[4] For more on this topic, see Tanabe 1999, 354–59.

Kōya daishi gyōjō zuga