Iconographic study of sacred beasts in Chinese Buddhism - special reference to dragon and lion -

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K02328
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Fine art history
• Research Institution: Waseda University
• Principal Investigator: SHIMONO Akiko 早稲田大学, 會津八一記念博物館, 主任研究員(研究院准教授) (90386714)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: 美術史 / 中国 / 仏教図像 / 龍 / 獅子 / 馬 / 霊獣 / 敦煌

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The greatest achievement is in the iconography of horses. In the Chinese Buddhist art, Prince Siddhartha’s horse Kanthaka and the “treasure horse,” one of the seven treasures possessed by a wheel-turning sage king, are depicted as a white horse with a red tail and mane. However, while Chinese translations of Buddhist texts describe Kanthaka as a white horse, there is no mention of the color of the horse’s mane or tail. As for the treasure horse, it is alternatively described as a “blue treasure horse,” and so was not a white horse to begin with. In the Shanhai jing (Classic of Mountains and Seas), the divine horse Jiliang is described as having a “white body and red mane.” This iconography came to be appropriated by Buddhism in the period of Northern dynasties, gradually penetrated in Tang dynasty.

Free Research Field

人文学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

インドで生まれた仏教は、美術とともにアジア各地に伝播したが、各地域でその地の文化・思想と交わり、それぞれ異なる発展を遂げていった。本研究の成果は、ごく一部ではあるが「仏教美術の中国的展開」という大きな流れの一端を明らかにすることができた。わが国の美術も中国仏教美術の大きな影響下に形成されているため、その解明にも資することが期待される。