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The Web of Associations in the Hōryūji Reliquary Set
As mentioned above, no reliquary identical to the Hōryūji set has yet been found in the Buddhist devotional sphere. The Hōryūji reliquary, however, typifies Asian Buddhist reliquaries in the most fundamental way—in its nested format and incorporation of diverse preceding and concurrent container types. Comparable to what Michael Willis observes about examples from South Asia, when each container in East Asian reliquary sets is considered in isolation, it is possible to identify an equivalent in familiar vessel types.[19] The containers used in the Hōryūji reliquary set exhibit intriguing resonances both to earlier Buddhist reliquaries from Yamato and the Asian continent and to other domestic and foreign vessels of ritual or daily use. Recognizing such loose associations adds layers of connotations that comment on the nature of the relics stored within.
A close examination of the inner containers demonstrates that, in the case of the Hōryūji reliquary set, loose associations evoked the funerary practice of cremation introduced to the Yamato political center in the eighth century, underscoring the nature of relics as the cremated body of the Buddha that was distinct from a corpse.[20] These associations, I argue, simultaneously legitimized the choice of container types for this set and allowed the ensemble to symbolically reenact cremation, positioning this act as the pivotal source of the relics’ sacred power.
(a) Sahari Lidded Bowl
In the Hōryūji set, the sahari lidded bowl—about thirteen centimeters in height and ten centimeters in diameter—holds the remaining inner containers (see fig. 5). Similar to the outermost sahari bowl, the inside of this lidded bowl is filled with objects of offering. A container equivalent in shape and material was found used as a reliquary at the site of Sandenji 山田寺, Gifu Prefecture, dating from the latter half of the seventh century (fig. 12).[21] Although the contents of the Sandenji reliquary do not survive, the existence of a similar container type at another site indicates that it was understood at the time to be suitable as a vessel in a Buddhist reliquary set. A lidded bowl was by no means the only container type for such a purpose, but it would have evoked an array of associations with previous and concurrent Buddhist and mortuary practices on both the archipelago and the Asian continent.
First, in the broadest sense, the use of a vessel with a rounded body and matching lid places this Hōryūji container within one of the most popular reliquary categories across the Buddhist devotional sphere. A lidded bowl- or jar-like container was among one of the oldest types of Buddhist reliquaries in South Asia and a vessel type that continued to be popular in the Gandhāran region. Based on the remaining examples, it was also a standard vessel type for Buddhist reliquaries in China, the Korean peninsula, and Yamato, Japan.[22] Familiarity with this type of Buddhist reliquary is corroborated by examples from China, for instance, the Northern Qi (550–77) stone reliquary from the Xiudingsi 修定寺 site, Anyang.[23] In addition, the relief image of the funerary urn for the cremated bones of the Buddha in the renowned stone parinirvāṇa stele from the former Dayunsi 大雲寺 at Puzhou, circa 690–92 (now in the collection of the Shanxi Provincial Art Museum) also seems to take the general format of a round lidded jar.[24] Finally, a lidded jar-like reliquary also appears in the hands of a bodhisattva in a Liang dynasty stone relief of the Buddha and his attendants (dateable to 548).[25]
On the Korean peninsula, metal, lidded, vase-like containers were included in the Baekje reliquary set recently discovered at the stone pagoda at Mireuksa 弥勒寺 (미륵사), dateable to 639.[26] As exemplified by the Bulguk-sa set—as well as the inner container of the set in the former Ogura Collection (now in the Tokyo National Museum) purported to have been found at Namsan 南山 (남산)—a number of lidded bowls or jars have been found in reliquary sets from Unified Silla, attesting to the continuing popularity of this vessel type on the Korean peninsula in the eighth century.
Seventh-century pictorial representations found on the archipelago show that a comparable lidded container with a round body was recognized as one quintessential vessel type for a Buddhist reliquary. For instance, the scene of the miraculous appearance of the Abundant Treasure Pagoda at the center of the bronze Lotus Sūtra Tableau from Hasedera 長谷寺, Nara Prefecture (Dōban Hokke sessō zu 銅板法華説相図, dateable to 698 and currently in Nara National Museum), includes a relief of a lidded jar-like reliquary (fig. 13).[27] In the seventh-century Buddhist semi-portable votive shrine popularly known as the Tamamushi Shrine (Tamamushi no zushi 玉虫厨子, Hōryūji), on the other hand, one of the panel paintings that adorns its surface presents a Buddhist reliquary as an oval-shaped lidded bowl (figs. 14, 15).[28]
References to a container with a round body also appear in the scriptural description of the receptacle for the cremated remains of the Buddha. According to the Parinirvāṇa Sūtra (Hatsunaion-gyō 般泥恒經, Chinese: Banniheng jing, translator unknown), translated into Chinese in the third century, once the Buddha’s body was cremated, his bones were placed in a golden jar (ei or kame 甖, Chinese: ying) and enshrined within a tiled stūpa.[29] A jar- or bottle-like vessel with an accompanying lid is described as also having been used during the legendary King Aśoka’s relic-distribution campaign. According to the scriptures, the Mauryan King Aśoka (reigned circa 268–33 BCE) collected relics from seven of the eight initial stūpas constructed at the time of the Buddha’s passing. He then redistributed the relics to eighty-four thousand regions. The Legend of King Aśoka (Aiku-ō den 阿育王傳, Chinese: Ayu-wang chuan, translated by An Faqin 安法欽 in 306) states that for this occasion, the king prepared eighty-four thousand boxes adorned with treasures, which were placed inside eighty-four thousand “pots (or jars)” (kame 甕, Chinese: weng), also adorned with treasures and accompanied by eighty-four thousand lids.[30]
In addition to vessels directly related to relic veneration, in the kingdoms on the Korean peninsula, as well as in Yamato, one finds such jar-like containers in contemporary funerary urns. An early example on the Korean peninsula is the seventh-century urn unearthed from the Gunsuri 軍守里 (군수리) site. Eighth-century examples from the archipelago include the bronze urn discovered in Kamori 加守, Katsuragi City (currently in the Tokyo National Museum); the urn for the remains of Ihokibe no Kototari Hime 伊福吉部徳足比売 (discovered at Miyashita, Tottori Prefecture, dateable to 710); and the bronze and glass urns excavated from the tomb of Fumi no Nemaro 文祢麻呂, Yataki, Nara Prefecture, dateable to 707 (fig. 16).
Cremation as a funerary practice was not native to East Asia. In Yamato, the introduction of cremation was inseparably tied to the establishment of Buddhism. According to Nihon shoki, cremation as a funerary practice was formally introduced to Yamato at the beginning of the eighth century by the monk Dōshō 道昭 (629–700), who traveled to Tang dynasty China and studied Buddhism under Xuanzang 玄奘 (602–664) between 653 and 661.[31] The use of a container type strongly associated with Buddhist relic worship to store cremated remains suggests that cremation was perceived as something specifically Buddhist, and the corpse that went through this procedure was identified using a container that looked distinct from—and more Buddhist than—conventional funerary caskets.[32]
Lastly, the shape of the lidded bowl in the Hōryūji reliquary set resembles the utilitarian vessels typically used in monastic settings as rice bowls (meshiwan 飯鋺).[33] It is true that (as discussed above) incorporation or imitation of a utilitarian object is frequently observed in Buddhist reliquaries from South Asia.[34] In relic veneration across China and on the Korean peninsula, vessels with known utilitarian functions were also often included in reliquary ensembles.[35] What is significant in the case of the Hōryūji inner bowl, however, is the fact that its resonance to the shape of a rice bowl links this container to the miraculous appearance of relics of the Buddha recorded in the eighth-century Nihon shoki.
Recall that Shiba no Tatsuto discovered the relic of the Buddha in his rice bowl during Soga no Umako’s banquet. Considering the history of Hōryūji, it is plausible that those who were responsible for preparing its reliquary were very much aware of the Tatsuto episode. The rebuilding of the temple in the first half of the eighth century coincided with a rise in the admiration and cultic devotion to the founder of the original structure, Ikarugadera, Prince Umayato no Toyotomimi (厩戸豊聡耳, 574–621/622, also known as Prince Shōtoku or Shōtoku Taishi 聖徳太子).[36] Popularly known as the Prince Shōtoku Cult, this initial wave of idolization of Umayato no Toyotomimi brought Hōryūji renewed support from Yamato royalty, many of whom were tied by blood or marriage to factions of the Soga family. The gilt bronze statue of Śākyamuni Buddha and his two attendants, selected as the central icon in the rebuilt Hōryūji Golden Hall, was accompanied by an inscription that identified its chief sculptor as Shiba no Kuratsukuri no Obito Tori 司馬鞍作首止利 (active first half of seventh century), the grandson of Shiba no Tatsuto.
In short, in the Hōryūji reliquary, employing the particular shape of a lidded bowl as the outermost receptacle potentially evoked an array of loose associations, including with earlier reliquary sets on the Asian continent and in Yamato, the scriptural narrative of the Buddha’s funeral and subsequent enshrinement of his relics, the newly introduced practice of cremation, and finally the domestic episode regarding the miraculous appearance of the relics themselves. To initiated viewers affiliated with the temple—for instance, the Hōryūji clerics who most likely commissioned the reliquary set and the lay devotees patronizing the temple, who could have been present at the set’s enshrinement into the pagoda—each thread of association would have legitimized the inclusion of this vessel and also evoked certain notions about the relics that were contained as a cremated body and miraculous entities.
(b) Oval Containers
The Hōryūji reliquary set’s association with cremation may have also been suggested by the two oval vessels held by the lidded inner bowl. The two oval containers are about ten centimeters and eight centimeters in height, and they both open vertically (see fig. 6).[37] The larger of the two is made of silver, while the smaller one is made of gold. The surface ornamentation of both containers shares a general configuration: the top of the container is adorned with a metal sheet in the shape of an open lotus, while the area below is divided into eight sections with some repeated patterns in openwork. The larger silver container has openwork decoration of seated bodhisattvas among a floral pattern; the smaller gold container has a purely floral pattern. The inclusion of silver and gold as materials resonates with the Buddha’s instruction regarding his funeral.[38] The most intriguing aspect of these containers, however, is not their materials but the combination of their form and the use of openwork technique for the ornamentation.
The oval shape of these containers is not described in scripture or known in any funerary caskets of the period, either in Yamato or on the Asian continent. However, a handful of examples feature openwork as a part of the reliquary ornamentation. The closest equivalent remains in Korea, including the Bulguk-sa set and another set reported to have been discovered from the Namwon 南原 (남원) stone pagoda, both from the Unified Silla period (eighth century). Although there are significant differences in detail, the reliquary set discovered at the three-story Śākyamuni Pagoda or Seokga-tap 釈迦塔 (석가탑) at Bulguk-sa is in fact one of the closest in concept to the Hōryūji set (see fig. 9). The Bulguk-sa reliquary set was discovered in 1966 in the cavity carved into the second stone of the pagoda’s central column. It has four inner containers: a bronze rectangular vessel with an openwork floral pattern; a lidded bowl-like bronze container with incised ornamentation and applied precious stones; a bronze bowl with line engravings; and finally the innermost glass bottle with the relics. The use of the glass bottle aside (by far the most popular material and form for innermost vessels in East Asian reliquary sets), inner containers in the Bulguk-sa and Hōryūji sets appear almost as alternate arrangements of a similar standard grouping, including bowls with and without lids and a container adorned with elaborate openwork that reveals the presence of the vessels inside. This use of openwork to deliberately exhibit the content within seems qualitatively different from other uses of the technique, such as the ornamentation at the top of the golden canopy above the Songnim-sa 松林寺 reliquary, Unified Silla period, seventh to eighth century (fig. 17).[39]
The free appropriation of utilitarian and ritual implements in Buddhist reliquaries provides a reason to cast a wide net in searching for an equivalent vessel type for the oval containers in the Hōryūji set. Openwork as a technique of surface ornamentation on vessels blurs the boundaries between the inner and outer spaces and protects each of those physical spaces from being fully invaded by the other. Employing such a technique on a reliquary container—rather than arguably much more widely practiced methods of ornamentation, such as painting or line engraving, that could have produced equally intricate surface patterns—suggests that the ability to sense the content from the outside was meaningful to the function of this reliquary set, both at the moment of the relics’ initial enshrinement and when used as the receptacle for the actual relics buried underground.
Among an array of vessel types, openwork surface ornamentation seems to function in a comparable way in devices such as lanterns or incense burners that require an effective communication of sensory information. In fact, the closest equivalent to the Hōryūji oval containers—in terms of form and ornamentation—are orb-shaped censers, such as those in the Shōsō-in 正倉院 (fig. 18) repository or one excavated from Famensi 法門寺, which postdate the Hōryūji reliquary set. What may be an earlier portrayal of an oval censer in the context of Buddhist worship appears in a stone statue of a seated Śākyamuni Buddha, dateable to 495, discovered in 2012 in Beiwu-zhuang Village 北吳庄村, Hebei province. Behind the mandorla, one finds a relief of two lay devotees; each one holds an oval-shaped container in one hand and what appears to be an oval censer in the other (fig. 19).
There are no other known examples of an orb-shaped censer used in a reliquary set. Unlike a functional censer, the oval containers in the Hōryūji set open vertically, and there is no mechanism inside that would allow them to work as censers. On the other hand, ample examples are evidence of the centrality of incense burning in Buddhist relic worship, and others allude to the practice of incorporating vessel types closely associated with incense burning into reliquary sets. Among the latter, so-called stūpa bowls (tōmari 塔鋺), which often were used as reliquaries in the western regions and East Asia, shared a container type with an incense holder (fig. 20).[40] Although the examples are few, reports suggest that some reliquaries from Gandhāra may have been used as incense burners during the enshrinement of relics.[41] Spherical reliquaries commonly found in Gandhāra also may have shared their form with incense burners made in the nearby region (fig. 21).[42]
The unusually shaped reliquary container reported to have been discovered at Inui Haiji 衣縫廃寺 (Inui Former Temple Site), Osaka, has no other equivalent reliquary container, but in its general shape, it resembles an incense burner, such as the one excavated from Dharmarajika, Pakistan (figs. 22, 23). Although the Inui Haiji reliquary is unfortunately now lost, we know about its appearance from a 1959 research report.[43] A replica that was created based on this report shows that this stone reliquary had a tall stand supporting a disk-like body and a lid adorned with geometric patterns.[44] The shape of its raised stand is much less ornate than that of the one from Dharmarajika. However, the extended circular rim of the base and the raised lid accented with a recurring pattern are more like the Dharmarajika reliquary than anything I have seen in other East Asian ritual or daily vessels. Based on the replica, there were no openings on the lid of the Inui Haiji reliquary to suggest that it was actually functional as an incense burner. It must also be noted that this comparison is not meant to demonstrate that the design of the Inui Haiji reliquary was based on a South Asian incense burner. Nevertheless, the resemblance in form may suggest that a vessel that evoked the shape of a South Asian incense burner had also been used as a reliquary container on the Asian continent, the examples of which are now lost.
The idea of using a censer or a container type that resembles a censer as a reliquary is again qualitatively different from simply including an incense burner as one of the offerings to the relics. However, the centrality of incense burning is attested to by Tang dynasty relic worship; an incense burner or holder sometimes has been found among the offerings enshrined with a reliquary set inside a crypt, either underground or at the top of the pagoda. An example can be found in the early eighth-century underground crypt at Fawang pagoda (Fawangta 法王塔), Xianyousi 仙游寺, Shaanxi province, where an incense burner was placed on top of the stone outermost container (fig. 24).[45] The offering of incense is one of the most fundamental devotional acts in Buddhism, and it is a practice highlighted in the scriptures during the scene of the funeral following the Buddha’s parinirvāṇa.[46] The incense burner at the Fawang pagoda was carefully placed within the underground crypt. It was found with pieces of sandalwood inside, indicating that it was actually used to burn incense.[47]
The presence of censer-like reliquaries at the site of relic enshrinement may be explained by the broader practice of devotees choosing specific forms and ornamentations in order to trace the parinirvāṇa narrative. In the renowned reliquary set discovered at Qingshansi 慶山寺, Shaanxi province (dateable to 741, currently at the Lintong Museum), the canopy-shaped, stone outermost casket has line engravings of the four key scenes in the parinirvāṇa narrative. It contains two inner vessels, shaped like slanted funerary coffins, nested one inside another. Inside the inner coffin were the green glass bottles with relics (fig. 25).[48] The silvery outer coffin has applied ornamentation of, among other things, mourning disciples and the Buddha’s feet. The shape of this container and its ornamental motifs bring together a sequence of three events from the parinirvāṇa narrative: the Buddha’s passing, the encoffinment of his body, and the appearance of the Buddha’s feet upon his principal disciple Mahākāśyapa’s arrival.
Nagaoka Ryūsaku points out that in the relic distribution campaigns carried out by the Sui emperor Wendi during the Renshou era (601–4; hereafter Renshou campaigns), the relics were sent from the capital to monasteries, where they were enshrined based on the scriptural description of the procession of Śākyamuni’s body into the city of Kuśinagara before it was cremated.[49] If this was the case, the use of a reliquary as a censer during the enshrinement of relics in the Gandhāran region, as suggested by a few extant works, may have been part of a reenactment of the parinirvāṇa narrative leading to the enshrinement of the relics into a stūpa.
A censer produces fragrance with fire. Arguably, this basic function is in essence analogous to the cremation of Śākyamuni’s body as it is explained in sūtras. Upon parinirvāṇa, the body of the Buddha was washed in scented oil and placed in caskets that also were filled with scented oil and cremated using incense.[50] In other words, not only did the Buddha’s body continue to be fragrant after he passed, but in effect, perfumed fire produced the relics of the Buddha. The idea that the sequence of events following the Buddha’s passing may have been retraced both in ritual and in the choice of containers and ornamentation of a reliquary set raises an intriguing possibility: in the context of relic worship, inclusion of a censer or a container reminiscent of a censer into a reliquary set—such as may have been the case with the Hōryūji example—functioned as a stand-in for the cremation of the Buddha itself.
(c) Glass Bottle
Finally, at the innermost core of the Hōryūji reliquary set is the green glass bottle with a lid made of silver. Based on the known examples, the glass bottle was another container type closely associated with the Buddha’s relics. As mentioned above, use of a glass jar or bottle as the innermost container was a common practice throughout East Asia. A glass jar with a round body and a low-rising lip was used as an innermost container in one of the earliest reliquary sets excavated in China—in Huata 華塔 (Ding County, Hebei province), dateable to 481 CE.[51] The popularity of a glass jar- or bottle-like container as a Buddhist reliquary during the Tang dynasty is verified in the depictions of the parinirvāṇa narrative, such as the mural from cave 148, Dunhuang Grottoes, Gansu province, dateable to 776. In this parinirvāṇa tableau, the veneration of the Buddha’s relics following cremation is presented with a group of devotees seated in front of the stūpa. The presence of the relics is indicated by a reliquary clearly portrayed as a translucent or bluish glass container (fig. 26). The reliquary set from Mireuksa confirms that a glass bottle was used as an innermost container in the Kingdom of Baekje, which purportedly gave the king of Yamato his first relic of the Buddha. Out of the four seventh- to eighth-century reliquary sets discovered intact on the archipelago, the Sūfukuji, Nao Haiji, and Hōryūji examples include some sort of glass container at their core.[52]
The glass bottle relates to the lidded bowl discussed above, not only because they both belonged to the general container types typically incorporated in a Buddhist reliquary but also because the bottle might have distinguished the cremated bodily remains from the un-cremated corpse. This is indicated most clearly, for instance, in the cave 148 parinirvāṇa tableau. In this mural, the body of the Buddha (prior to cremation) appears in a slanted coffin shaped like the standard Tang dynasty funerary casket, while the relics of the Buddha (following cremation) are represented by a glass bottle. The container types and ornamentation, and the particular way they are arranged, arguably makes the Qingshansi reliquary set a three-dimensional version of the depiction in cave 148. The placement of the glass bottles inside the coffin-shaped containers creates a movement in time, tracing the transformation of the Buddha’s body through cremation from corpse to bones.[53] One may suppose that a similar notion also existed in eighth-century Yamato, since the funerary urn for the cremated remains of Fumi no Nemaro had a nested construction of a lidded glass jar placed inside a lidded bronze bowl (see fig. 16).[54]
Ars Orientalis Volume 46
Permalink: https://doi.org/10.3998/ars.13441566.0046.006
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