The Fifty-Five Episodes of Sudhana’s Pilgrimage: Visiting Upāsikā Acala

{i=>[Flower Garland Sutra, Buddhâvataṃsaka-sūtra, Huayan jing, Kegon kyō, kalyāṇamitra], content=>[The pure-hearted Sudhana sets out to achieve enlightenment in the , (Skt. , ; Ch. , ; J. , ), visiting and revering virtuous teachers—“good friends” (Skt. , )—one by one on the advice of the bodhisattva Monju (Skt. Mañjuśrī). This painting depicts his visit to Upāsikā Acala (Fudōubai), one of the epic’s fifty-five scenes. This is thought to come from a set preserved at the Kaidan’in of Tōdaiji Temple.]} This is one of the fifty-five scenes of Zenzai-dōji's (Sudhana Śreṣṭhidāraka's) pilgrimage, during which he had visited masters of virtue. This motif is based on the description in the Nyū-hokkai chapter of the Kegon-kyō (Gaṇḍa-vyūha sūtra) sutra. It is conceivable that this panel belonged to the set of paintings kept in Tōdai-ji temple. The names of the masters of virtue, whom Zenzai-dōji was visiting, the names of locations, and poems are written at the top of the paintings.

The painting style is not modeled after the newly established style of the Song dynasty, which had been introduced to Japan mainly through wood block prints, but it follows the classic style of the paintings of Zenzai-dōji's pilgrimage. The original model piece was presumably made sometime between the late Tang dynasty and the period of Five Dynasties. Among the set of paintings in Tōdai-ji temple, some of them were painted in rich colors with colored lines and shadings. These aspects can be seen in Japanese Buddhist paintings of the 11th century, too. The landscape and the strange creatures were described in the classic style. These characteristics tell that the paintings belonging to the set were produced in a conservative style modeled after some older version of the paintings with the same motif. The date of production is thought to be earlier than that of the scroll version of the painting of the same motif in Tōdai-ji temple and no later than the mid-12th century.

— Museum description: Nara National Museum (CC BY 4.0), via ColBase / Japan Search.