Jogu Shotoku Hoo Teisetsu (Biography of Prince Shotoku)

The Oldest Biography of Prince Shotoku

The Jogu Shotoku Hoo Teisetsu (Biography of Prince Shotoku) (上宮聖徳法王帝説) is a Heian-period manuscript of the Jogu Shotoku Hoo Teisetsu in one handscroll, owned by Chion-in in Rinka-cho, Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto City, which in 1955 was designated a National Treasure.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records one handscroll owned by Chion-in.

According to the Jodo Shu encyclopedia, its compiler is unknown, and a date on the reverse shows it was copied before 1078, making it the oldest surviving biography of Prince Shotoku.

Contents

According to the encyclopedia, it has five parts: the imperial genealogy centred on Prince Shotoku; his deeds; the halo inscriptions of the Yakushi and Shaka images of the Horyuji Kondo and the Tenjukoku embroidery, with commentary; further accounts of his deeds, such as the defeat of Mononobe no Moriya, the arrival and suppression of Buddhism, the cap-rank system and the Seventeen-Article Constitution; and the reigns, deaths and tombs of five sovereigns from Kinmei to Suiko, with Shotoku's dates and burial place.

The parts differ in origin: the genealogy uses seventh-century forms, and the whole reached its present form in the mid-Heian period. Notes on the reverse concern Toyuradera, Kanroku, Kuratsukuri no Tori, Yamadadera, Hannyaji and the death of Soga no Umako.

What to Look For

The encyclopedia notes that the Chion-in manuscript passed at the end of the Edo period to Ugai Tetsujo, who gave it to Chion-in in 1879; it is a fundamental source for the study of Horyuji and Prince Shotoku.

Chion-in adds that it records versions of the arrival of Buddhism and the date of the prince's death that differ from the Nihon Shoki, giving it very high value as an ancient record.

Visiting the Jogu Shotoku Hoo Teisetsu (Biography of Prince Shotoku)

The manuscript is owned by Chion-in and is not always on display; check the temple's announcements.