Public Access to the Digital Content for the Honpō-ji Temple Lotus Sutra Mandala Painting
The Lotus Sutra Mandala scrolls preserved at Honpō-ji Temple, an ancient temple in Toyama City, Toyama Prefecture, are a unique and large-scale example consisting of a set of 22 large-format panels that visually illustrate the contents of the 28 chapters of the Lotus Sutra. Believed to have been created between the first and third years of the Karyaku era (1326–1328) at the end of the Kamakura period, they are also valued for their confirmed date of origin. Every year on August 6, during the Kazaire Memorial Service, the Lotus Sutra Mandala is hung inside the main hall of the temple and explained to the congregation, offering a tangible sense of how this deeply rooted local ritual has been passed down to the present day.
The Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties (TOBUNKEN) received a donation of high-resolution image data from Dr. HARAGUCHI Shizuko (Nara University), who has long been engaged in research on the Honpō-ji Lotus Sutra Mandala, captured during her research. Using this data, the Institute created digital content featuring color and infrared images of all 22 panels of the Lotus Sutra Mandala, as well as images of accompanying materials. We began limited public access to this content within the TOBUNKEN Library in March 2026.
（https://www.tobunken.go.jp/joho/japanese/library/library_collection/index.html#digitalcontents）
Although the Hokke-kyō Mandala Painting at Honpō-ji Temple is an extremely valuable example of its kind, it has rarely been exhibited as a complete set due to the large number of panels involved. Furthermore, because the illustrations in published books are limited in scope, it had not been possible to examine the details sufficiently. The digital content released on this occasion allows users to zoom in on specific areas of the painting and compare them with infrared images. We hope this will serve as an opportunity for many people to discover the rich world of the Lotus Sutra Mandala.
For information on accessing the digital content, please visit the TOBUNKEN website:
https://www.tobunken.go.jp/joho/japanese/library/library_collection/index.html
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Honpō-ji Temple for their cooperation and support in making this available to the public.
*Affiliations listed are as of that time.