The Shadow of Xuanzang: On the Question of Yogacara and Shingon Lineages in Late Heian Japanese Buddhist Painting

This talk reinterprets the Shingon hasso gyojozu (Deeds of the Shingon Eight Patriarchs) as a visual metaphor in which images of the deeds of the Shingon patriarchs are simultaneously mapped onto celebrated episodes from Xuanzang's historic journey to India. An analysis of the installation of the Gyojozu paintings in the Shingondo further reveals that the Daijo-in supervised the production of the paintings as a pivotal means of demonstrating the legitimacy of practicing Esoteric Buddhism side by side with Hosso Buddhism at its branch temple, Eikyuji. Based on this evidence, talk also suggests that the Gyojozu was painted by Fujiwara Munehiro, the court painter renowned for his production of the Mikkyo ryobu daikyo kantokuzu (Divinely Inspired Reception of the Two Great Esoteric Sutras), which also originally belonged to the Shingondo and which are now in the collection of the Fujita Art Museum. Talk is part of the APSI Spring Speaker Series and is sponsored by Asian/Pacific Studies Institute, Duke Religious Studies Dept, Carolina Asia Center, and the Triangle Center for Japanese Studies.