Womb World Mandala (Taizōkai mandara)
Mandalas (Japanese, mandara 曼荼羅) are schematic designs of the universe;1 key instruments in the practice of esoteric Buddhism through which a human practitioner can achieve spiritual unity with the divine. These images are illustrative representations of concepts expressed in Buddhist sutras, or sacred texts, that were transmitted from India to China, and eventually to Korea and Japan.2 Subject to reinterpretation and reformulation in each host culture, mandalas took on new forms in Japan as they
1 The term mandala has a wider signification in Japanese culture than in other Buddhist countries, referring not only to esoteric schematic diagrams such as those under consideration in this essay, but also from the early eleventh century onwards to more representational landscapes of Buddha’s
paradise or of shrine precincts. Examples of the latter type include images of the Kasuga Shrine 春日大社 , an important Shinto religious site in Nara. Also, Sylvan Barnet and William Burto, "The Kasuga Deer Mandala Hunt," in Orientations, Vol. 42 No. 1 (Jan/Feb 2011) discusses the expansion of
the mandala concept to very different kinds of paintings in Japan. 2 For a book-length treatment of Japanese mandalas in English, see Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis, Japanese Mandalas: Representations of Sacred Geography. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press (1999). In particular, the discussion of Womb World mandala on p. 58 -77 features an extensive discussion and comparative examples.
The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts Reflections of the Buddha came into contact with native elements, whilst simultaneously being brought into dialogue with older designs and doctrines from the continent. This is an example of a Womb World Mandala (Japanese, Taizōkai mandala 胎蔵界),
originally one half of a pair, which illustrates active instantiations of the absolute truth of Buddhism in the phenomenal world. This absolute truth is represented by the meditative figure in the center, the Buddha Mahavairocana (Japanese Dainichi nyorai 大日如来), while the surrounding figures represent various aspects of that truth, all of which are manifestations of Mahavairocana.
Originally constructed in three-dimensional form for the physical demarcation of space for a rite, ritual contemplation or specific initiation ceremonies,3 two-dimensional mandala such as this one maintain the connection with physical space by serving as ground plans for three-dimensional
architectural structures - palaces - that can be constructed within the imagination.4 Mahavairocana is placed in a lotus flower in the central and uppermost level of a multi-tiered palace, and moving outwards and downwards from his divine and unchanging presence we find an ordered hierarchical arrangement of Buddhas and bodhisattvas before passing into more chaotic realms of progressively less enlightened beings, until we reach, in the outer edges of the mandala, the occupants of the lower realms of existence in the outer edges of the mandala, such as humans, animals, and hungry ghosts.
Once initiated into the proper use of these mandala a practitioner is able to use it as a guide to an internal pilgrimage. Entering through the outer gates that indicate the transition from profane to divine space, the initiate can mark milestones of spiritual progress by passing through its compartmentalized
3 Contemporary Tibetan Buddhists continue the ancient practice of constructing mandala out of colored sand for the purposes of a specific rite, and destroying them after it has been completed, though both the ritual use and the preparation of the mandala are acts of worship. See M. Brauen, The
Mandala, Sacred Circle in Tibetan Buddhism. London: Serindia Press (1997). 4 The visual dependence on a coherent architectural structure in the Womb World mandala is indicative of the time in which it was produced. Though the seventh-century text on which the mandala is based, the Mahavairocana Sutra 大日経 (Japanese, Dainichi-kyō), does give particular details, the displayed architecture of gabled roofs and gateways are reminiscent of Tang period 唐朝 (618 - 907) Chinese palace architecture of the eighth century, when the iconography for the Womb World mandala was established (ten
Grotenhuis 1999, p. 6). Ideas for the composition of the mandala are drawn from chapter two of the Mahavairocana Sutra, which had been translated into Chinese by Subhakarasimha 善無畏(637-735) and I-hsing 張遂 (683-727). Kūkai introduced the sutra and its commentary in a version referred to as
the Dainichi-kyō-sho and Ennin 圓仁 or 円仁 (793 - 864) introduced another version referred to as the Dainichi-kyō Gishaku. Shingon employs the former sutra, and the Tendai 天台 sect the latter. Womb World Mandala (Taizōkai Mandala) 3
The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts Reflections of the Buddha configurations. Importantly, these gates also mark the portals through which the practitioner leaves the sacred realm and returns to the world once
the rite is complete, just as the successive tiers on each level of the palace represent levels of consciousness that the practitioner must ascend to, and eventually descend from upon their return from the spiritual space of the ritual. The demonic beings that mark these transitional zones are not frightening to the initiate; they are threatening to devour only the passions that obstruct the believer from attaining enlightenment.
The full meaning of the Womb World mandala is understood only when this mandala is considered together with another type of mandala known as the Diamond World Mandala (Japanese, Kongōkai mandala 金剛界). As a pair, these two form the Two Worlds Mandala, or Ryōkai mandala 両界曼, which are most
commonly arranged facing one another upon the east and west walls of an esoteric sect’s initiation hall.5 These mandalas express different but complementary aspects of the dharma, or Buddhist truth; the Diamond World representing rationality, the unconditional, universal, and absolute, and
the Womb World representing compassion, the individual, particular and relative aspects of that same truth. They are thought to have been developed in late eighth century China by the monk Huiguo 惠果 (746 - 805),6 and were subsequently introduced to Japan by the Kūkai 空海 (734 - 835),7 known
posthumously as Kōbō Daishi 弘法大師 (the Great Teacher), who had studied with Huiguo when Kūkai travelled to China from 804 to 806 as part of a government sponsored trip.8 Huiguo recognized Kūkai as his one true disciple,9 and imparted his knowledge of esoteric teachings in the few months remaining before his death. This spiritual transmission was marked materially by Kūkai’s receipt of Huiguo’s
5 It is standard practice to place the Diamond World mandala on the western wall and the Womb World mandala on the eastern wall (ten Grotenhuis 1999, p. 37). 6 ibid., p.3. 7 For general background, see Joseph M. Kitagawa, "Master and Savior," in Nakano Gishō (comp. and ed.) Studies of Esoteric Buddhism and Tantrism. Kyoto: Naigai Press, (1965), pp. 1-26, which presents the life and legend of Kūkai. Kitagawa cites biographical sources for Kūkai in his Religion in Japanese History. New York: Columbia University Press, (1966), pp. 63-65. Visual sources include several Kamakura period
(1185-1333) portraits, and the Illustrated Life of Kōbō Daishi 弘法大師行状絵詞 (Japanese, Kōbō Daishi gyōjōekotoba), a fourteenth century set of twelve handscrolls that graphically depict the main events of his life. For a more recent study, see Ryūichi Abe, The Weaving of Mantra: Kūkai and
the Construction of Esoteric Buddhist Discourse. New York: Columbia University Press (2000). 8 The trip also included the monk Saichō 最澄 (767 - 822), who founded the Tendai sect upon his return. 9 Kūkai’s account of Huiguo’s final request is translated in Yoshito Hakeda, Kūkai: Major Works
Translated, with an Account of his Life and a Study of his Thought. New York: Columbia University Press (1972), pp. 148-149. Womb World Mandala (Taizōkai Mandala) 4
priestly robe, or kesa 袈裟, now one of the celebrated treasures of Tō-ji 東寺 temple, Kyoto.10 Assembled in a patchwork manner from many fragments of
valuable cloth, these robes are a reminder of the mendicant ideal of the monastic order, and in the Shingon 真語 faith they became important documents of dharma transmission from master to disciple. Upon his return, Kūkai founded the Shingon sect of Buddhism and is still revered today as
one of Japan’s most significant patriarchs. Understood according its Sino-Japanese characters, “Shingon” means the “true word” or mantra; together, the Shingon sect and the Tendai sect 天台宗 - which is named for Mt. Tiantai 天台山, in China’s Fujian province, where the teachings were first
promulgated - is also often referred to as mikkyō 密教, or the “secret teaching”, in contradistinction to kengyō 顕教, the “revealed teachings.” This kind of Buddhism is known as esoteric (or tantric) because it relies on the secret transmission of knowledge through mysterious and elaborate rituals
that defy verbal expression. Secret teachings specifically refer to the doctrine of the “secret” Buddha Mahavairocana; revealed teachings, to the doctrine revealed by the historical Buddha, Śākyamuni 釈迦如来 (Japanese, Shaka nyorai).11 Mandala are essential to the transmission of these teachings as visual representations of sacred truths that had no other vehicle:
“Since the Esoteric Buddhist teachings are so profound as to defy expression in writing, they are revealed through the medium of painting to those
who are yet to be enlightened. The various postures and mudras [shown in mandala] are products of the great compassion of the Buddha; the sight of them may well enable one to attain Buddhahood. The secrets of the sutras and commentaries are for the most part depicted in painting, and all the
essentials of the esoteric Buddhist doctrines are, in reality, set forth therein. Neither masters nor students can dispense with them. They are indeed [the expressions of] the root and source of the oceanlike assembly”.12 Kūkai
The Italian scholar Giuseppe Tucci (1894-1984), who was one of the first Western scholars to focus his studies on Tibetan Buddhist art and on mandalas, describes mandala as a “means of reintegration;”13 more specifically within the Shingon sect, mandala are pictorial attempts to show that all forms of
10 For a study of the importance of such robes, see Yamakawa Aki, “Intertwined Threads: The World of the Enshoji Altar Cloth”, in Patricia Fister et. al. Amamonzeki – A Hidden Heritage : Treasures of the Japanese Imperial Convents. Tokyo: Sankei Shinbun (1999). This robe was recently on display at
the Tokyo National Museum exhibition Kūkai’s World: The Arts of Esoteric Buddhism (July 20th - September 25th 2011), cat. 17. 11 Minoru Kiyota, “Shingon Mikkyō Mandala”, in History of Religions, Vol. 8, No. 1 (Aug., 1968), p. 31. 12 Hakeda 1972, pp. 146 - 146. 13 Giuseppe Tucci, The Theory
and Practice of the Mandala, trans. Alan Houghton Brodrick. London: Rider & Co., (1961) pp. 21-48. Womb World Mandala (Taizōkai Mandala) 5
existence are interrelated and essentially one, that man’s nature is one with and a part of the Buddha Vairocana. Doctrinally, this ‘reintegration’ is manifest in the theory known as sokushin-jōbutsu 即身成仏, propounded by both Kūkai and his contemporary Saichō 最澄 (767-822), whereby Buddhahood
as the deity Vairocana is realized in each human body just as that body is, in this very existence. The human practitioner is able to attain Buddhahood in his current body by recognizing himself as participating in Mahavairocana’s Buddha nature just as Mahavairocana reciprocally
participates in the practitioner’s body. Unity with the speech, body and mind of Mahavairocana is achieved though somatic practices such as breathing and chanting in ritually prescribed ways. These doctrines, expressed visually through the two worlds mandala, are illustrative of the more direct
path to enlightenment provided by the esoteric practices introduced in the Heian period (794 - 1185). According to the teachings of the earlier Nara period (710 - 794) schools eons and the cycles of many existences were required in order to bring a practitioner to enlightenment, and as such it is
easy to see why Shingon’s doctrines, allowing for the possibility of the enlightenment of the practitioner within their current lifetime, captured the imagination of the Heian period nobility.
The oldest surviving Japanese mandalas are a pair known as the Takao Two Worlds mandala 高雄両界曼荼羅 in the possession of the Jingo-ji 神護寺, Kyoto14 (Takao is the name of the mountain where Jingo-ji is located.) Each image of the Takao pair is over four metres square,15 and was
commissioned by Kūkai to replace examples he had brought back from China that had degraded through ritual use. Although it is unclear to what extent the initiate was meant to use the mandala as a visualization aid in meditation,16 we can at least say that these two mandala types, placed behind an
altar holding various Buddhist implements and offerings of flowers and incense, created an appropriate ceremonial backdrop. Additionally, in esoteric initiation ceremonies, an acolyte would be blindfolded and instructed to cast a flower onto the mandala - a ceremony which established a personal relationship between the practitioner and the figure of the deity upon which the petal landed.17
14 After Kūkai’s return, later monks, notably Ennin, brought back other esoteric mandala based on older Chinese models. 15 See the Tokyo National Museum exhibition catalog: Kūkai’s World: The Arts of Esoteric Buddhism. Tokyo: Tokyo National Museum Press (2011), cat. nos. 41 and 42. These
mandala were copies of versions that Huiguo had commissioned for the Tang court. 16 See Robert H. Sharf, “Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience”, in Numen, Vol. 42, No. 3 (Oct., 1995), pp. 228-283; David Gardiner, “Mandala, Mandala on the Wall: Variations of Usage in the
Shingon School”, in Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 19, 2 (1996), pp. 245 - 279. 17 Gardiner 1996, pp. 260 - 265. According to the Record of the Kanjō Initiation Rite 灌頂暦名 (Japanese, Kanjō rekimei) (Kūkai’s World, cat. 39), the first time anyone received
initiations into both the Womb and Diamond World was in the eleventh and twelfth months of 809, when Kūkai conducted the ritual for Saichō. Womb World Mandala (Taizōkai Mandala) 6
The Barnet-Burto Collection mandala, executed in fine gold lines on indigo-dyed silk, is an excellent example of balance between the geometrical symmetry of the architectural structure and the profusion of varied figures. More than four hundred deities are given a convincing sense of volume
despite their simplified contours; the softly curving strokes are able to convey a sense of the deities’ dynamic movement and interaction in the densely populated space, which is delineated more abruptly by the application of cut-gold leaf or foil used for the major horizontal and vertical
lines separating the different courts, and the central lotus petals.18 Aside from its obvious material value and signification of preciousness, gold represents the perfection of the Buddha’s great wisdom, and the indigo-blue background represents the lapis lazuli, the stone from which the Buddha’s
palace is built.19 Many examples of the Two Worlds mandala are executed in polychrome; in this example, however, the only colored pigment is the red line that signifies compassion that is painted around the central lotus section (discussed below). It is rare to have works in gold and indigo in this state of preservation and scale from the Kamakura period (1185-1333) or earlier outside of the major Esoteric temples in Japan.
In the center of the mandala, a fully opened eight-petalled lotus flower holds the Buddha Vairocana, jeweled and garlanded and in princely raiment, surrounded by eight petals on which are seated four Buddhas and four Bodhisattvas, together representing the nine kinds of consciousnesses. As the
mandala radiates outwards from the center, the deities and the meanings they represent become progressively more concerned with the phenomenal world, that is, with the practical functioning of knowledge and the senses rather than with their conceptual purity.20 Although the iconography of each
18 John Rosenfield and Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis, Journey of the Three Jewels: Japanese Buddhist Paintings from Western Collections. New York: Tuttle (1979), p. 76. The Takao mandala is a famous large-scale example from the ninth century of a mandala of that also utilizes cut gold and silver foil
on precious purple-dyed silk. A comparable eleventh century example is held in the Kojima-ji 子島寺 in Nara, but even smaller scale versions of mandala produced by this method are rare (Ariga Yoshitaka in Buddha’s Smile - Masterpieces of Japanese Buddhist Art. Tokyo: London Gallery Ltd.
(2002) cat. 99). Buddhist sutras had been copied in gold onto indigo dyed paper and silk from the eighth century, and it seems that the same aesthetic is at work in these mandala, and likely the same craftsmen were involved in their production. For an example in China, see the Guanyin
Chapter from an Illustrated Lotus Sutra also in this exhibition. 19 As described in the Visualization Sutra 観無量寿経 (Japanese, Kanmuryōjūkyō). 20 John Rosenfield and Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis, Journey of the Three Jewels: Japanese Buddhist Paintings from Western Collections. New York: Tuttle
(1979), p. 76. Some deities, such as the bodhisattvas Jizō and Kannon, are repeated in different manifestations at different locations throughout the mandala to represent their different attributes in different situations and worlds.
The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts Reflections of the Buddha aspect of the mandala is too complex to be given exhaustive treatment here,21 there are several broader iconographic themes which enable a better
understanding of esoteric ideology. Mahavairocana sits in the central open lotus flower, in lotus posture (legs crossed, each foot on opposite thigh, soles upward) his hands forming the mudra or ritual hand gesture for meditation (right palm resting on left palm, thumbs joined to form an oval).22
This oval shape symbolizes non-duality, and particularly in Shingon doctrine the non-duality of human and Buddha natures. The lotus symbolism here is particularly important; the lotus is revered in Buddhism generally because it grows straight upwards out of the mud, through murky water to rise
pristine and blossom elegantly above the water. Likewise, the human soul may be surrounded by the filth and darkness of materialism, but it can rise untarnished into the pure state of enlightenment. In esoteric Buddhism the lotus has further signification, symbolizing as it does how the world of
the Buddha can unfold inside an ordinary human heart. If a lotus seed is split down the middle, it appears to contain in miniature the fully developed plant complete with roots and leaves, analogous to the seed of Buddha nature present in each sentient being that is nurtured by the Buddha’s compassion.23
Other symbolic shapes in the mandala - such as the vessels at the four corners of the central dais and the vajras (stylized thunderbolts) that partially emerge from between the lotus petals - have a high level of significance as ceremonial objects that are here incorporated into the pictoral mandala that adorns the ritual space. The vessels are wish-granting vases, the vajra three-pronged weapons that symbolize wisdom; similar vases might have actually been used for acts of ablution in Hindu or South-East Asian ceremonies, and later absorbed into Esoteric iconography thereafter.
Originally a Hindu symbol, in Japan vajras were thought to be made of diamond - and thus signifiers of the unyielding nature of Buddhist truth. Often held in the hands of esoteric deities, the vajras’ hardness grants them the ability to shatter illusion and reveal the perfect wisdom of the dharma.
21 Although this mandala shares much in common with others of the Womb World type, but there are also interesting differences. For instance, it is
actually a variation of the standard iconography that marks it out as an object of the Tendai sect; Ratnasambhava 宝生如来 (Japanese, Hōshō nyorai) is usually seated on the left petal - but here he is shown at the top, and the deity Akshobhya 阿閦如来 (Japanese, Ashuku nyorai), who usually occupies
the top petal is instead located to the left of Vairocana. Additionally, this example falls into the “landscape type” brought back from China by Ennin, in which desks are place before Avalokitasvara 観音 (Japanese, Kannon) and Kongo Zao 蔵王権現 (Japanese, Zao Gongen) (Ariga 2002). See also
Adrien Snodgrass, The Matrix and Diamond World Mandalas in Shingon Buddhism. Aditya Prakashan (1988). 22 E. D. Saunders, Mudra: A Study of Symbolic Gestures in Japanese Buddhist Sculpture. Princeton, N.J., 1985. 23 Shunshō Manabe, “Meaning of the Esoteric Mandalas in Japan”, in Moritake Matsumoto, ed., Proceedings of the Itobei Ohira Memorial Conference on Japanese Studies (Vancouver: Institute of Asian Research, University of British Columbia (1984) pp. 292 - 293.
It is important to remember that the mandala is not a static image - although we usually think of meditation as a practice to achieve mental stillness, that is not the purpose here. The reality of achieving enlightenment through the mandala is an activity where one partakes in the process
of universal salvation. This mandala represents compassion in action; once achieved by the practitioner, compassion radiates outwards again towards all beings in the universe. This form of meditation is an active process, transforming the mind through a series of processes and back again. The
mandala then, is not simply a pattern to be followed, but by a truly interactive absorption on behalf of the practitioner as the image becomes an external projection of their internal reality.
Katherine L. Brooks Ph.D. Candidate, Department of History of Art and Architecture Harvard University Pulitzer Foundation Graduate Student Research Assistant Harvard Art Museums
Marks of Enlightenment, Traces of Devotion: Japanese Calligraphy and Painting from the Sylvan Barnet and William Burto Collection. Harvard University Art Museums (23 December 2004 - 17th April 2005).
Faith and Form: Selected Calligraphy and Painting from the Japanese Religious Traditions. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M Sackler Gallery
Publications
Yukio Lippit and Anne Rose Kitagawa, Marks of Enlightenment, Traces of Devotion: Japanese Calligraphy and Painting from the Sylvan Barnet and William Burto Collection. Harvard University Art Museum Gallery Series, No. 44, Cambridge, MA (2004).
Miyeko Murase and Masako Watanabe, The Written Image: Japanese Calligraphy and Painting from the Sylvan Barnet and William Burto Collection. New York (2002) pp. 76 - 83.
Ariga Yoshitaka, Buddha’s Smile - Masterpieces of Japanese Buddhist Art. Tokyo: London Gallery Ltd. (2002) cat. 99.
John Rosenfield and Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis, Journey of the Three Jewels: Japanese Buddhist Paintings from Western Collections. New York: Tuttle (1979).
List of Works Consulted
Kukai’s World: The Arts of Esoteric Buddhism. Tokyo Tokyo National Museum Press (2011).
Ryūichi Abe, “Saichō and Kūkai: A Conflict of Interpretations”, in Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, Vol. 22, No. 1/2 (Spring, 1995), pp. 103-13.
Ryūichi Abe, The Weaving of Mantra: Kūkai and the Construction of Esoteric Buddhist Discourse. New York: Columbia University Press (2000).
Yamakawa Aki, “Intertwined Threads: The World of the Enshoji Altar Cloth”, in Patricia Fister et. al. Amamonzeki – A Hidden Heritage: Treasures of the Japanese Imperial Convents. Tokyo: Sankei Shinbun (1999). Womb World Mandala (Taizōkai Mandala) 10
M. Brauen, The Mandala, Sacred Circle in Tibetan Buddhism. London: Serindia Press (1997).
Richard Bowring, “Preparing for the Pure Land in Late Tenth-Century Japan”, in Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, Vol. 25, No. 3/4 (Fall, 1998), pp. 221-257.
David Gardiner, “Mandala, Mandala on the Wall: Variations of Usage in the Shingon School”, in Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 19, 2 (1996), pp. 245 - 279.
Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis, Japanese Mandalas: Representations of Sacred Geography. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press (1999).
Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis, “Rebirth of an Icon: The Taima Mandala in Medieval Japan”, in Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 36 (1983), pp. 59-87.
Yoshito Hakeda, Kukai: Major Works Translated, with an Account of His Life and a Study of his Thought. New York: Columbia University Press (1972).
Joseph M. Kitagawa, "Master and Savior," in Nakano Gishō (ed.) Studies of Esoteric Buddhism and Tantrism. Kyoto: Naigai Press (1965), pp. 1-26.
Joseph M. Kitagawa, Religion in Japanese History. New York: Columbia University Press (1966).
Minoru Kiyota, “Shingon Mikkyō Mandala”, in History of Religions, Vol. 8, No. 1 (Aug., 1968), pp. 31-59.
Peter Knecht, “Ise sankei mandara and the Image of the Pure Land”, in Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, Vol. 33, No. 2, Varieties of Pure Land Experience (2006), pp. 223-248.
Yukio Lippit and Anne Rose Kitagawa, Marks of Enlightenment, Traces of Devotion: Japanese Calligraphy and Painting from the Sylvan Barnet and William Burto Collection. Harvard University Art Museum Gallery Series, No. 44, Cambridge, MA (2004).
Shunshō Manabe, “Meaning of the Esoteric Mandalas in Japan”, in Moritake Matsumoto, ed., Proceedings of the Itobei Ohira Memorial Conference on Japanese Studies. Vancouver: Institute of Asian Research, University of British Columbia (1984).
Miyeko Murase and Masako Watanabe, The Written Image: Japanese Calligraphy and Painting from the Sylvan Barnet and William Burto Collection. New York (2002) pp. 76 - 83.
John Rosenfield and Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis, Journey of the Three Jewels: Japanese Buddhist Paintings from Western Collections. New York: Tuttle (1979).
Sawa Ryūken and Hamada Takashi (eds.), Mikkyō bijutsu taikan. Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha (1983-1984).
E. D. Saunders, Mudra: A Study of Symbolic Gestures in Japanese Buddhist Sculpture. Princeton, N.J. (1985).
Robert H. Sharf, “Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience”, in Numen, Vol. 42, No. 3 (Oct., 1995), pp. 228-283.
Toganoo Shōun, Mandara no Kenkyū. Kyoto: Naigai Press (1927).
Adrien Snodgrass, The Matrix and Diamond World Mandalas in Shingon Buddhism. Aditya Prakashan (1988).
Giuseppe Tucci, The Theory and Practice of the Mandala, trans. Alan Houghton Brodrick. London: Rider & Co., (1961).
Yanagisawa Taka, Tōji no ryōkai mandarazu: renmentaru keifu. Kyoto: Tōji Museum (1994).
Hamada Takashi, Mandara no sekai. Tokyo: Bijutsu Shuppansha (1971) pp. 200 - 2006.
Ann Yonemura, leaflet to accompany the exhibition Faith and Form: Selected Calligraphy and Painting from the Japanese Religious Traditions. Washington D.C.: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M Sackler Gallery.
