• Hyakumantō darani (A dhāraṇī from inside a one-million-pagoda) (Text)
    百万塔陀羅尼

Uniform title:
  • Tripiṭaka. Sūtrapiṭaka. Raśmivimalaviśuddhaprabhānāmadhāraṇī. Chinese. Selections
Contributor:
  • Hōryūji (Ikaruga-chō, Nara-ken, Japan)
Publisher:
  • [Hōryūjimura] : [Hōryūji], [764-770]
  • [法隆寺村] : [法隆寺], [764-770]
Extent:
  • 1 scroll ; 6 x 32 cm + 1 wooden pagoda (22 x 11 x 11 cm) in wooden box (26 x 16 x 16 cm)
Format:
Abstract:
  • An original copy of the block-printed Hyakumantō darani text, the earliest surviving example of a datable printed text, rolled inside a numbered wrapper and stored in a miniature wooden pagoda. The Empress Shōtoku (718-770) of Japan was said to have commissioned one million such objects to appease the Buddhist church after an uprising in the 8th century. This prayer is the "short" Sōrin variety.
Subject:
Provenance:
  • Formerly owned by Gillett Griffin.
Former owner:
  • Griffin, Gillett G. (Gillett Good), 1928-2016
Edm rights:
  • Copyright Not Evaluated
View in catalog:
Curator's notes:

  • Sanskrit, Classical Chinese, Classical Japanese
    Japan, 764–770, paper and wood

    Empress Shōtoku, daughter of Queen Kōmyō, in her turn commissioned in 764 “one million wooden pagodas” (Hyakumantō), each containing a small paper scroll printed with dhāraṇīs (spells) from a Buddhist text that itself recommended that practice. These texts now constitute, alongside a Korean print from the very same sūtra, the world’s oldest examples of printed matter. Tens of thousands of the pagodas and several thousand printed spells still exist.

    Gift of Gillett G. Griffin
    Graphic Arts, 2015-0160Q

    For further reading

    Kornicki, Peter. “The Hyakumantō darani and the origins of printing in eighth-century Japan.” International Journal of Asian Studies 9, no. 1 (2012): 43-70.

    See also: Hyakumantō darani (A dhāraṇī from inside a one-million-pagoda) (Pagoda)

Exhibit category: