JAPAN; BUDDHISM.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Daihan'nya haramitta-kyo ("The Great Sutra of the Perfection of Wisdom"). Eiongu-kyo, Volume 174. One of only 19 known complete chapters of this set, originally commissioned during Emperor Shomu's reign (701-56) and then assembled and edited with distinctive red punctuation marks at Kofuku-ji in the 13th century. The Great Sutra of the Perfection of Wisdom (Sanskrit: Mahaprajnaparamita sutra) comprises 16 related sutras - including the Diamond Sutra - each traditionally understood as the Buddha's teaching delivered to a different assembly of followers. Collectively, they elaborate the principle that realization of one's true nature is achieved through detachment from the illusory importance of all conditioned things. The collection was first translated into Chinese by the Tang dynasty monk Xuanzang (602-664) and subsequently introduced into Japan, where it became the standard version of the text. The group of 600 scrolls from which this chapter derives is known as the Eiongu-kyō ("Eion's Sutra"). Beginning around 730 and continuing over some 15 years, court officials, encouraged by Emperor Shōmu, commissioned individual chapters of The Great Sutra of the Perfection of Wisdom. In 1232 the scrolls were assembled at Kōfuku-ji, one of the Seven Great Temples of Nara, where they were edited and punctuated by Eion (b. 1167), the monk responsible for the temple's sutra store. They were subsequently donated to Kunitama Jinja in Osaka, the shrine of the Kii family.The manuscript was d

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