Wall Paintings of the First Storey of the Five-Storied Pagoda (Color on Wood Panel)

Eighteen Painted Surfaces, National Treasure since 1976

Wall Paintings of the First Storey of the Five-Storied Pagoda (五重塔初重壁画, Gojunoto Shoju Hekiga), in color on wood panel, are owned by Daigoji at Daigo Higashiojicho, Fushimi Ward, Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture, and were designated a National Treasure on 5 June 1976. The quantity is eighteen surfaces, the category painting, the date 951.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs leaves the field for designation as an Important Cultural Property blank, so the work went to National Treasure without that earlier step, the seventh such case among the properties covered here.

The commentary, however, runs long. Where the paintings covered just before stopped at a period and a full stop, this record gives the time of making, the surfaces painted, the subjects, the manner and the assessment. The date of listing, 1976, seems to answer to that fullness.

Finished with the Pagoda Itself

The Agency records the time of making precisely.

The wall paintings of the Daigoji pagoda were completed in the tenth month of 951, together with the completion of the pagoda.

Month as well as year, and the same moment as the building. These were not added later; the finishing of the structure and the finishing of the paintings coincide.

The pagoda itself is treated separately, as a structure. The inside and the outside of one building are recorded as different properties, the same arrangement as at Yasaka Shrine, where the main hall and the twenty-nine structures of the precinct carry separate designations.

Painted on Four Kinds of Surface

Where the painting sits is set down in detail.

The paintings are placed on the boards sheathing the central pillar, on the four inner pillars, on the latticed windows and on the wainscot boards, all within the first storey of the pagoda.

Four kinds of surface: the boards that case the mast running up the centre of the pagoda, the four pillars standing around it, the windows that let in light, and the boarding along the lower wall.

Pillars, windows and boards alike carry painting. Not the walls only: the structural members themselves become the picture surface. The same thinking appears at Hokaiji, where columns and ceiling are painted, and in the upper storey of the Tofukuji gate, painted throughout.

The count of eighteen surfaces answers to these faces.

One of the Eight Patriarchs Is Missing

One phrase in the account of the subjects repays attention.

The deities of the two-world mandala and the eight patriarchs of the Shingon school, Subhakarasimha excepted, are placed to great effect and in three dimensions.

The eight patriarchs are the eight figures held as founders of the school. Yet the record adds, in brackets, that one of them is absent. Called eight, and one is not painted.

The Agency gives no reason. Whether he was never painted or was lost later cannot be told from the record. Only the fact is set down: one of the eight is missing.

To great effect and in three dimensions is the assessment attached. What is valued is the arrangement of the figures through the space of the pagoda rather than across a flat surface.

A Benchmark Work of the Tenth Century

The words of assessment come in two parts.

First, position. Among wall paintings of the Heian period these rank, with those of the Phoenix Hall at Byodoin, as the most important surviving examples. They are set beside the Phoenix Hall paintings.

The Amida hall at Hokaiji was valued for showing a character different from the Phoenix Hall. Here the word is beside. The same point of comparison, opposite directions of judgment.

Second, manner. The drawing is rooted in the tradition of esoteric painting from the early Heian period onward while showing the first signs of the graceful and generous new Fujiwara manner, and as a benchmark work of the tenth century, where old and new manners cross, its value is very high.

Benchmark work is the term used: a work against which the date and manner of others can be measured. It is precisely because old and new cross here that it can serve as a measure.

As for visiting, the interior of the pagoda is not necessarily open at all times. Special openings are arranged from time to time, so check the temple's information before travelling.