聞分館君 Ask BunKanKun

法華經密號

3 min read

Text ID
KR6d0040
Date
806–835
Dynasty
日本

Fǎhuájīng mìhào 法華經密號

Esoteric Names of the Lotus Sūtra (J. Hokekyō mitsugō) by 空海 (Kōnghǎi / Kūkai, 撰)

About the work

A very short single-juan Esoteric piece on the mantra-syllable names of the principal figures of the Lotus Sūtra (KR6d0001, T262), under the name of 空海 Kūkai (774–835), preserved in the Taishō at T56n2190E. The work is one of the seven short Kūkai-attributed Lotus pieces in the T2190 group (see KR6d0036).

Prefaces

The Taishō recension carries no separate preface. The text proceeds directly to the list of 密號 (mìhào, esoteric names / bīja-akṣaras).

Abstract

The Hokekyō mitsugō gives, for each of the principal Buddhas and bodhisattvas of the Lotus pantheon, an Esoteric bīja-akṣara (mantra seed-syllable) and mudrā (hand-gesture) prescription, together with brief doctrinal-symbolic explication. The principal figures treated include:

  • Śākyamuni Buddha (the Lotus’s preaching Buddha);
  • Prabhūtaratna 多寶 (the long-departed Buddha who appears in the jeweled stūpa in chapter 11);
  • Mañjuśrī 文殊 and Maitreya 彌勒 (the principal bodhisattva interlocutors of the early chapters);
  • Avalokiteśvara 觀世音 (whose Lotus chapter, Pǔmén pǐn 普門品 / chapter 25, became the basis of the independent Avalokiteśvara-sūtra tradition);
  • Samantabhadra 普賢 (whose Lotus chapter, Pǔxián pǐn 普賢品 / chapter 28, is the closing chapter);
  • the Dragon-girl 龍女 (chapter 12);
  • the Tathāgata of Long Life of chapter 16.

For each, the work provides a bīja-akṣara in siddham 悉曇 script, a corresponding mudrā prescription, and a doctrinal note placing the figure within the Shingon dual-mandala cosmology.

This piece is the principal preserved evidence for Kūkai’s mandalic re-imagination of the Lotus pantheon — the program of reading each figure of the Lotus not as a doctrinal-Mahāyāna character but as an Esoteric ritual identity with its corresponding bīja, mudrā, and mandalic position. The work was foundational for the subsequent Hokke-mandara 法華曼荼羅 iconographic tradition — the medieval Japanese tradition of producing painted mandalas of the Lotus pantheon with each figure depicted in Esoteric bīja-and-mudrā form, especially developed at the Shingon Murō-ji 室生寺 and the Tō-ji 東寺 ateliers.

The work is brief and the attribution to Kūkai is generally accepted, although some scholars have questioned whether the present recension is precisely Kūkai-original or a later Shingon-school list compiled from his oral instructions.

Translations and research

  • Kōbō Daishi zenshū 弘法大師全集.
  • Abé, Ryūichi. The Weaving of Mantra: Kūkai and the Construction of Esoteric Buddhist Discourse. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. — Includes treatment of the bīja-akṣara tradition and Kūkai’s mandalic hermeneutic.
  • Toganoo Shōun 栂尾祥雲. Mandara no kenkyū 曼荼羅の研究. Kōyasan: Kōyasan Daigaku, 1927. — The foundational Japanese-language study of the Esoteric mandala tradition.
  • Snodgrass, Adrian. The Matrix and Diamond World Mandalas in Shingon Buddhism. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan, 1988.
  • ten Grotenhuis, Elizabeth. Japanese Mandalas: Representations of Sacred Geography. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1999. — Discusses the Hokke-mandara tradition.

Graph View

Backlinks