法華経巻第八
- 平安時代後期
- 12c
- 紙本墨書
- H-25.6 W-806.5
平安時代後期 12世紀
紙本墨書
縦：25.6cm 全長：806.5cm
『妙法蓮華経』八巻は，鳩摩羅什が翻訳した経典で最もよく知られた大乗経典の一つであるが，この『法華経』ほど種々に書写され，装飾された経典はなかろう。ことに平安時代中期以降，とくに12世紀には末法思想や貴族社会の耽美主義と法華信仰とが結びついて，わが国独自ともいえる「装飾法華経」が数多く制作されたのである。
この一巻は，界上界下に銀泥・緑青・群青で草花蝶鳥文様を描き，銀泥の界線を引いて経文を書写しており，とくに華美な装飾を施したものではないが，そこにかえって奥ゆかしい美しさがにじみでている。平安時代後期には料紙を種々に染め，豪華に金銀箔を散らしたりする装飾経が流行する一方で，華美にはしることなく界上界下を中心に草花や蝶鳥の文様を可憐に描くこのような装飾経も好まれたらしい。また，草花蝶鳥文様が描かれた類品のいずれもがやや小振りの写経であることも共通しており，おそらくは華美な装飾を好まない女性が発願したものではないかと思われる。これもやや小振りではあるが，全体はある種の品格と典雅な美しさに溢れている。経文の筆致は必ずしも能筆とは言えないが，端正に書写した様子が伝わり，その篤信ぶりが偲ばれる。
このような装飾経には，もと金銀泥で装飾を施したり，見返しに経典の内容などを描いた見返し絵があったと思われるが，残念ながら，もとの表紙は残っていない。しかし，軸は当初のものとみられ，軸端には螺鈿で菊と蓮弁散らしの文様が嵌め込まれており，往時の優美な姿を垣間見ることができる。
もとは『法華経』八巻一具として書写されたうちの一巻とみてよい。（赤尾）
Catalogue Entry
Volume 8
Late Heian period, 12th century
Handscroll, ink on paper
Height, 25.6cm; overall length, 806.5cm
The 8th scroll of the Lotus Sutra is one of the sutras translated by Kumaraju (Kumarajiva) and is one of the best known Daijo sutras (Mahayana Sutras). No other sutra has been copied in so many forms or been produced in more decorated sutra texts. During the mid to late Heian period, Japan witnessed the conjunction of mappo beliefs, or the Buddhist belief in the collapse of the Buddhist law at the end of the millenium, with the aestheticism of the aristocracy, and this combination led to the production of a great number of distinctly Japanese decorated Lotus Sutra texts.
The areas above and below the text area on this one scroll have been decorated with bird, flower and plant, and butterfly motifs drawn in silver paint and malachite and ultramarine pigments, while silver paint has been used to draw the boundary lines between sections and to brush the sutra text. This sutra is not a particularly gorgeously decorated example of the type; rather it is characterized by a more subdued, a subtler beauty. Some decorated sutra texts from the late Heian period use a variety of dyed papers and have been splendidly decorated with motifs in cut gold and silver foil, but at the same time, there was also the taste for this type of decorated sutra which focuses its decorations in the areas above and below the text, with sweet designs of birds, flowers, and butterflies. The sutra texts which used these bird-flower-butterfly motifs were often relatively small in scale, and it is thought that these texts were commissioned by women who did not like the overly gorgeous forms of decorated sutras. The present sutra is also relatively small in scale and is characterized by a certain charm and quiet beauty. The brushstrokes used in the sutra text are not particularly those of a professional hand, but the correct copying of the sutra conveys the devotion of its scribe.
Originally, this kind of decorated sutra would have been decorated in gold and silver, and there would have been a painting on the inside frontispiece of the scroll depicting a scene from the contents of the sutra, but unfortunately the original mount for this work has been lost. The jiku scroll bar, however, is thought to be the original, and the ends of the scroll bar have been inlaid with mother-of-pearl chrysanthemum and scattered lotus petal motifs, allowing us a glimpse of the scroll's original splendor.
This single scroll can be considered to have been created as 1 scroll from a set of the 8 scrolls of the Lotus Sutra. EA