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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books
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Heaven is intended. This we find fully developed in Ch. xlvii. 001,⁸ a large and complete picture over five feet square. It shows us Amitābha and his two chief Bodhisattvas on lotus thrones rising from the Sukhāvatī lake, and in the foreground a large terrace occupied by representatives of the various celestial beings, including pure souls reborn as infants, sacred birds, etc., characteristic of the main class of Paradise pictures. Oval lotus buds enveloping infant souls, and accompanied by inscriptions which describe the state of rest enjoyed by the soul in its new life, rise at the back of the terrace. Above in the air appear small Buddhas descending on clouds, floating infant souls, graceful Apsaras figures by the side of the central canopy, musical instruments—all forming part of the familiar tableau presented by the typical Paradise paintings.
Yet striking differences of composition, such as the total absence of the celestial mansions in the background and the ample spacing of the principal figures, make it equally certain that we have here preserved a specimen of a Sukhāvatī scheme developed quite independently of the orthodox type which predominates among the Ch'ien-fo-tung paintings and frescoes, and which has become stereotyped in Japan. It is hence of special interest to observe that the costume of the donors in Ch. xlvii. 001; liii. 001 is markedly different from that seen in all dated tenth-century paintings and manifestly older also than that seen in the picture Ch. lv. 0023, of A.D. 864, already discussed.¹⁰ The characteristic features of the dress—the small tailed cap and long belted coat in the case of the men and the plain hair knot and narrow-sleeved bodice in that of the ladies—appear with still greater clearness in the donor figures of the large embroidery picture, Ch. 00260 (Plate CIV). This last shares some of the other peculiarities of our two paintings,¹¹ and may on the strength of this evidence be attributed to approximately the same period. A relatively early date seems to be indicated for all three pictures also by the previously discussed fact that the costume of their donors bears close resemblance to the quasi-archaic dress and coiffure in the scenes from Śākyamuni's life, as presented by the banners, and also to that in certain Yün-kang and Lung-mên relievos.¹²
The type which as early as T'ang times must have become predominant for the representation of Amitābha's Paradise is illustrated in our collection by more than a dozen paintings.¹³ Owing to the large surface needed for such a host of figures, the majority of the pictures in this series have suffered much damage, while a few are reduced to mere fragments. But some are in fair preservation, and the abundance of materials permits all features common to the type to be determined with certainty. For a detailed account of these Miss Lorimer's careful notes in the Descriptive List may be consulted.¹⁴ Here it must suffice to draw attention to the essential points. The explanations kindly furnished by a competent Japanese expert, Mr. Yabuki, who in 1916 studied these and other large compositions in our collection, make it clear that the paintings of this series are intended
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