The Nichiren Mandala Part one: Origin of the mandala in Japan

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The Nichiren Mandala Study Workshop

曼陀羅 or 曼荼羅

mandala stems from Sanskrit language

meaning “concentric energy circle” or “circle”

as well as “completion”.

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Primitive mandalas Appeared in India around the sixth century c.e.

With the growth of Vajrayana Buddhism

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Association of doctrinal concepts

with specific figures and icons

Methodically arranged mandalas evolved with the

development of Mahayana philosophy

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Sutra texts transferred to icons Hensō-zu refers to the

“transformation of text into image”

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Taizōkai and Kongōkai mandalas

Arrived in Japan in the ninth century c.e.

through Saichō (Dengyō) and Kūkai (Kōbō)

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Hokke (Lotus) iconography

Developed in Heian (794~1185) Japan after Saichō

established a Mahayana ordination platform

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Nichiren mandala Gohonzon

Depicts the Ceremony of the Air representing enlightenment.

The allegory is described from the second half of the eleventh to the twenty-

second chapter in the Lotus Sūtra when Śākyamuni is joined by Tahō Buddha in

the jeweled stupa that emerges from the earth

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Concept of Nichiren’s Gohonzon

It is a Moji-mandala inscribed with logographs instead of figures

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Concept of Nichiren’s Gohonzon The depicted figures are originally from India, China and Japan

and represent the spread of Buddhism along the Silk Road

Since all the participants to the event are portrayed as being present

contemporaneously, the Nichiren mandala transcends also the traditional concept

of time and space becoming a visualization of the entanglement principle.

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Typologies of Nichiren’s Gohonzon

Four main groups,

each divided into two or three subgroups, resulting in nine different typologies

Very few identical Gohonzon

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More information in next presentation Or in the books from the Nichiren Mandala Study Workshop

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