The Lotus Sutra

A Set of Scrolls Born from Grief

In the spring of 1206, one of the most prominent figures at the imperial court died without warning. He was Fujiwara no Yoshitsune, a regent and a celebrated poet, still in his thirties. According to tradition, the Retired Emperor Go-Toba mourned him deeply, and a memorial copying of Buddhist scripture was organized under the emperor's consort, known as Gishumon'in. The set of scrolls said to have been produced for that occasion survives today as the Hokekyo Ippongyo, a decorated copy of the Lotus Sutra now belonging to Jiko-ji, a mountain temple in Saitama Prefecture.

Because the work was passed down at this temple, it is widely called the Jikoji-kyo, or "Jiko-ji Sutra." The term ippongyo describes its format. The Lotus Sutra, traditionally counted in twenty-eight chapters, was divided so that each chapter could be written on its own separate scroll. To these were added the Amida Sutra and the Heart Sutra, bringing the nationally designated set to thirty-three scrolls in all.

Why It Is a National Treasure

Japan designated the Hokekyo Ippongyo a National Treasure on March 29, 1954, placing it in the category of calligraphy and manuscripts. Its standing rests in part on the company it keeps. Art historians group it with the Kunoji-kyo and the Heike Nokyo as the three finest decorated sutras, or soshokukyo, of their era. Produced in the opening years of the Kamakura period, the Jiko-ji set is usually counted last of the three in date.

A decorated sutra was never meant only to be read. Copying scripture earned religious merit, and a wealthy patron could deepen that merit by making the copy as beautiful as human skill allowed. The ippongyo format fitted this aim well. With each chapter assigned to a different scribe and ornamented by different hands, a single act of devotion could draw on a whole circle of aristocratic calligraphers and painters, each responsible for one scroll.

The outcome is a record of court taste at its most refined. The papers were dyed in white, purple, pale brown, and indigo, then scattered with cut squares and fine dust of gold and silver foil. Faint ruled lines drawn in silver ink guide the columns of text. Every scroll differs from the next, so the complete set reads less like a single book than like an anthology of individual works held together by a shared prayer.

What to Look For

The feature that rewards close attention sits at the head of each scroll, before the text begins. This is the frontispiece painting, or mikaeshi-e, a small yamato-e picture that illustrates the meaning of the chapter to follow. One depicts a sunrise climbing past layered hills and trees to light a clear lotus pond, the green of the lotus leaves still vivid after some eight centuries.

On certain scrolls the boundary between picture and text dissolves. In a technique called ashide-gaki, or "reed writing," characters of the sutra are concealed within the painted scenery, worked into reeds, water, and rocks so that reading and looking become a single act.

Seeing the originals takes a little planning. The scrolls are deposited for safekeeping at the Tokyo National Museum and the Nara National Museum, and individual scrolls appear fairly often in special exhibitions and on loan elsewhere. At Jiko-ji itself, faithful reproductions are on display, including ceramic facsimiles of selected chapters, so a visit to the temple still brings the work within reach.

The Temple and Getting There

Jiko-ji stands on the wooded slopes of Mount Toki in Tokigawa, in the Hiki district of Saitama. Temple records trace its origins to the seventh century and credit the monk Dochu, a leading disciple of the great vinaya master Ganjin, with formally founding it around 770, which makes it one of the oldest temples in the prefecture. As the ninth station of the Bando pilgrimage of thirty-three Kannon temples, it has received worshippers for centuries, and it later won the patronage of Minamoto no Yoritomo and the Tokugawa shoguns.

The climb to the precinct passes several points worth a pause. The Kannon hall holds a horse carving attributed by local tradition to the sculptor Hidari Jingoro, said to break loose and run wild at night. Near the grounds grows an old tarayo tree whose leaves, once scratched with a stylus to leave writing, are linked in legend to the Japanese word for postcard.

By car, the temple is about thirty minutes from the Higashi-Matsuyama interchange on the Kan-Etsu Expressway, and parking is available. By train, the nearest station is Myokaku on the JR Hachiko Line, from which local buses run toward the temple area. Service on the final stretch has at times been suspended, so it is wise to check current options and consider the town's reservation-based shared taxi, which covers the last leg for a modest fare. After the visit, the nearby Sannami valley offers a day-use hot spring and hand-cut soba.