The Shosetsufudoki was written by the priest Shinjaku (886-927) and it notes the features of the more than 360 deities present in the Womb Mandala. This research report was based on the Genzu version of the Womb Mandala. This "Genzu" refers to the Womb Mandala in the pair of Mandalas of Both Realms brought to Japan from China by priest Kukai in 806. The original seems to have already been damaged during Kukai's lifetime, and today, the faithful rendition of the original appearance can be found in the so-called Takao Mandala that was painted in 829 with gold and silver pigments on purple-dyed silk with the Vajiradhatu Mandala and dedicated to the Kanjodo hall at Jingoji by Kukai. However, today the Takao Mandala's silk is badly damaged and flaking, and it is extremely difficult to see the details of the deities depicted on the mandala with the naked eyes. Thus, in order to understand the details of the individual deities, we must refer to the scrolls at Hasedera and the volumes at Kosanji that both reproduce each individual deity on the Takao Mandala in fine ink lines, as commissioned by priest Ken'i in 1136. Further, a woodblock-printed version of the Kosanji volumes, known as the Omuro version, was published in 1869. So it is apparent that the Shosetsufudoki is the oldest extant record of the deities depicted in full color on the Genzu Womb Mandala brought to Japan from China by Kukai, approximately 200 years before Ken'i's copy of the iconography on the Takao Mandala. Thus the Shosetsufudoki is extremely important as an historical research report.
  The printing type version of the Shosetsufudoki was published in 1933 in the first volume of iconography of the Taisho shinshu daizokyo based on ten manuscript volumes dated 1335 and handed down at Kongozo warehouse, Kanchi-in, Toji. This 1335 version is the oldest extant version of the entire text. So the Taisho shinshu daizokyo version of medieval manuscripts can be considered extremely beneficial in its bringing this important text to the general public and thus furthering research on the Womb Mandala. However, it must also be noted that in the process of printing the text, the various forms of information found on the original have been reduced, or left out, thus, in the end, part of the original rich, unique information found in the manuscript is not fully transmitted. In particular, characters and phrasing in the Taisho shinshu daizokyo version were revised according to the Dainihon bukkyo zensho printed version based on the late Edo period manuscript (Tohoku University Library collection). As a result, the Taisho shinshu daizokyo version is completely different from the original manuscript handed down at Kanchi'in or the Dainihon bukkyo zensho version, with problems extending as far as the notations regarding the various deities in the Genzu Womb Mandala.
  My discussion today is a result of a five-year reexamination of the Henchi-in, Rengebu-in, Kongobu-in and Zimyo-in sections (all of volumes 3 and 4) of the Kongozo-Kanchi-in-Toji version. Moreover, I consider issues concerning the Shosetsufudoki in the context of the Study of the "Genzu" Womb Mandala by referring to slight differences noted in the iconography of the various deities between the Takao Mandala, the second copy of the Womb Mandala brought to Japan from China by Kukai, and the "Genzu" Womb Mandala, which priest Shinjaku saw through the examination of the notations.