Figuring Salvation: The Hōryūji Clay Sūtra Tableaux

Abstract

Hōryūji 法隆寺 is a Buddhist temple complex located to the southwest of the city of Nara. It was originally built in the early seventh century as Ikarugadera by a royal prince named Umayato no Toyotomimi 厩戸 豊聡耳 (574–ca. 622). Ikarugadera burned down in 670, but the temple was subsequently rebuilt at the current location and was functioning by the first half of the eighth century as Hōryūji. The oldest sanctuary of Hōryūji is known as the West Precinct 西院伽藍 (Saiin Garan, Fig. 1). It contains a Golden Hall 金堂 (Kondō) and a five-story pagoda 五重塔 (Gojūnotō, Fig. 2) located side by side, surrounded by a corridor 回廊 (Kairō) that presently connects to the Lecture Hall (講堂, Kōdō) to the north and the Central Gateway 中門 (Chūmon) to the south. On each side of the first story of the pagoda, there is a sūtra tableau of polychrome unbaked clay in a semicircular alcove. Located between two of the four posts that surround a central ‘‘heart pillar’’ 心柱 (shinbashira), it faces outward toward the corridor (Figs. 3, 4). The Hōryūji sūtra tableaux are panoramic three-dimensional landscapes, a type of temple ornamentation that first