SACRED TEXTS AS A SOURCE OF THE BUDDHIST VISUAL TRADITION: THE JAPANESE ICONOMETRIC CORPUS

Buddhist sacred sculpture is based on classical sacred Buddhist texts that have a history of hundreds of years of existence and transformation. The need to create such instructional texts was dictated by the necessity to preserve and transmit tradition and craftsmanship (waza no denshō, 技の伝承), including the reproduction of the ritual for creating images (sacred sculptures), from master to disciple (shishi sōjō, 師資相承). Iconometric texts are present in the cultures of most countries where Buddhism was widespread, but due to their large number and content, it is more appropriate to study them according to their country of dissemination. In this case (the first publication in a series), the focus is on the Japanese corpus, which includes: Shosetsu fudōki (諸説不同記, IXth–Xth c.), Jikkanshō (十巻抄, XIIth c.), Besson zakki (別尊雑記, XIIth c.), Kakuzenshō (覚禅抄, XIIth–XIIIth c.), and Asabashō (阿娑縛抄, XIIIth c.).