Artworks

Taima Mandara

Artwork · Anonymous · 13th century · kakemono · Nara National Museum

A painted version of the Taima Mandara, the icon of Pure Land Buddhism as Hōnen taught it: its original is the tapestry at Taima-dera Temple, by tradition of the eighth century but perhaps Chinese, rediscovered in the thirteenth century. At the centre Amida sits on an octagonal throne with Kannon and Seishi before multi-storied palaces and a lotus pond in which souls are reborn; the left border tells the legend of Queen Vaidehi, the right shows the thirteen meditations on the paradise — the lapis lazuli earth among them — and the bottom the nine grades of rebirth. 1 Mason 2005, pp. 205–207, figs. 238–239. ↩ Literatur Mason 2005: Penelope E. Mason, History of Japanese Art, 2nd, Pearson Education LTD. 2005.