Description
The version copied here is a Chinese translation by Guṇabhadra (394–468), an Indian monk who was active during China’s Liu Song dynasty. In the sutra, Queen Śrīmālā expounds upon the virtue of the one-vehicle doctrine and the buddha-nature inherent to all beings. Prince Shōtoku (574–622) is said to have produced an annotated version of the sutra and delivered a sermon on it for Empress Suiko (554–628). The frontispiece features a painting in rich pigments of the prince’s sermon. The scroll is further decorated with mist-like trails of gold dust and paintings of scattered petals, which suggest a ritual in which flowers are tossed as offerings to Buddhist deities. Its ornateness is typical of decorated sutras produced in the early Kamakura period (1192–1333).
Data source
ColBase
"ColBase: Integrated Collections Database of the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan" is a service that enables a multi-database search of the collections in the four national museums (To...
Contents holder/Provider
Aggregator
National Institutes for Cultural Heritage
The National Institutes for Cultural Heritage (NICH) comprise four National Museums (Tokyo National Museum, Kyoto National Museum, Nara National Museum, and Kyushu National Museum) and two National Research Institutes for Cultural Properties (Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, and Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties), as well as the International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI) in Sakai City, for a total of seven institutions.
Last updated
July 20, 2026