SACRAL HIDDEN PHRASES, SECULAR POEM-PICTURES. ON INTERRELATIONS BETWEEN TEXT AND IMAGE IN SENMEN HOKEKYŌ SASSHI

Abstract

The article discusses on specific text-image interrelations in Senmen Hokekyō sasshi (Fan-shaped album of the Hokekyō Sutra), a XIIth century work restored in Shitennōji temple, Osaka. The album is famous not only because of its uncommon fan-shaped plates but also colourful underdrawings (shita-e). It is considered that the pictures are in fact pictorialization of poems (uta-e), which are combined with Sutra’s text. Using special technique called “hidden phrases” (inpukuteki kotoba) the author focuses on connections of uta-e with poems that could be inspiration for such pictorialization. The problem of pictures as means linking religious content with classcial Japanese poetry (waka) is also emphasized.