Paper short abstract:

The Taima Mandala and its creation legend were widely enjoyed via visual representations and oral preaching. The noh play Taema is based on them, but rather than dramatizing the legend, it uses a variety of techniques to allow the audience to witness the miracles firsthand

Paper long abstract:

The Taima Mandala is one of Japan’s oldest and largest Pure Land mandalas. Depicting the Pure Land of Amida Buddha in extraordinary detail, it became the focus of ardent worship as Pure Land beliefs gained wide popularity. Innumerable replicas were produced and distributed throughout the country, often accompanied by oral preaching that expounded both the image of the Pure Land and the legend of the mandala’s miraculous creation. According to the legend, the mandala was created from lotus threads by Amida Buddha and Kannon Bodhisattva, who appeared in disguise in response to the prayers of devout Lady Chūjō. Additionally, picture scrolls of this legend were often used in oral preaching. The final scene of both the legend and the picture scrolls portrays the procession of Amida Buddha and bodhisattvas to Lady Chūjō’s deathbed and her rebirth in the Pure Land, which was the basis of the Welcoming Rite (mukae-kō) held at Taima Temple.

Zeami’s noh play Taema was based upon the legend of this mandala, but with the original story line deliberately blurred. In the first act, Lady Chūjō does not appear onstage. Rather, Amida Buddha and Kannon Bodhisattva appear in disguise and describe the wondrous Pure Land as it unfolds before our eyes, just as they told Lady Chūjō in the legend; they then reveal their true identity and make a miraculous ascension to the Pure Land. In the second act, the spirit of Lady Chūjō performs a dance as the “Bodhisattva of Song and Dance.” Thus, she is not the one welcomed into the Pure Land (as depicted in the legend, picture scrolls, and rite) but the one who welcomes us to the Pure Land, where dancing bodhisattvas are among the first things that one sees after being reborn there.

The play does not simply function as a three-dimensional picture scroll dramatizing the well-known legend. By blurring the storylines in various ways and using the power of theatrical language to control the audience’s spatial perception, it makes the audience experience the miracles as Lady Chūjō experienced them in the legend.