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1.
Introduction
Ladies and Gentlemen, dear staff of Nagarjuna
Institute. I am Mr Kimiaki Tanaka, a research fellow of the Eastern Institute
Inc., Tokyo, working mainly on Indo-Tibetan esoteric Buddhism and the Buddhist
Iconography. It is my great honor to give a short lecture here.
Honestly speaking, Kathmandu valley has become my
second homeland since I was studying Buddhist Sanskrit manuscripts and Tibeto-Nepalese
Buddhist Iconography here as a guest research fellow of Nepal Research Centre
during 1988-1989. Since then, my experience here exerted far reaching influence
on my study.
Last year, I submitted my dissertation on the
historical development of the mandala to the University of Tokyo. And I attached
romanized editions of two important Sanskrit manuscripts on the
Guhyasamaja-mandala which I discovered during my stay in Nepal.
Without one year which I spent in Nepal, I could
not complete my study. But it is very difficult for me to explain my textual
study in such a limited time. Therefore I would like to select the other
specialized field of mine, Tibeto-Nepalese Buddhist art, as the topic of my
short lecture.
On this occasion, I will mainly focus on the Hahn
Cultural Foundation in South Korea where I am working as an academic consultant
and the Toga Meditation Museum in Toyama prefecture, Japan where I am a curator.
2. Tibetan
Buddhist Study in Japan
Let's introduce the history of Tibeto-Nepalese Buddhist studies in Japan shortly
as the first topic of my short lecture. Japan and Tibet has a long history
spanning over 1500 years. But we had not had any direct intercourse until a
Japanese expeditioner Ekai Kawaguchi's first visit to Tibet in 1900.
It is noteworthy that Ekai visited Nepal before entering Tibet and cement
friendship with some Nepali like Chinya lama Buddhavajra of Bodhnath and Harkha
Man Sherchan of Tukuche village.
Ekai Kawaguchi's main purpose was to bring the Tibetan Tripitaka to Japan. But
he collected many Tibeto-Nepalese Buddhist arts particularly wood block prints
of thangka mainly printed at Sera Monasetery where he studied Buddhism. His
collection was donated to the Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan by his nephew.
And when the catalogue of the Ekai Kawaguchi collection was published by Tohoku
University in 1986, I was invited to Sendai and participated in the compilation
of the catalogue mainly through the iconographic identification. It was my first
experience of cataloguing Tibeto-Nepalese art.
And in the process of cataloguing, I noticed that several paintings and statues
are not of Tibetan but of Nepalese origin. For example, Sukhavati Lokesvara,
Srstikanta Lokesvara and Cintamani Lokesvara are stylistically and
iconographically definitely of Nepalese origin.
And in 1990, my study on Ekai Kawaguchi collection was published as A Catalogue
of Ekai Kawaguchi's collection of Tibetan and Nepalese Buddhist Art by Kosei
Publications.
Now Japanese Tibetology confronts difficulties never experienced before. Due to
the privatization of National Universities, many chairs for Tibetan/Buddhist
studies were abolished and never restored. Private universities inaugurated by
Japanese Buddhist sects, on the other hand, could not collect enough students
due to the depopulation of a young generation gradually proceeding in Japan.
Actually they hired several experts on Tibetan Buddhism or classical Tibetan
language since they were necessary for the study of Indian Buddhism. But in many
cases after their retirement no further recruitment occurred and permanent
chairs were substituted by part time lecturerships.
Therefore we cannot help but seek other jobs like part time lecturer, occasional
lectures to the public, publications on Tibet, academic consultancy for museums,
supervision of exhibitions and TV programmes etc.
On this occasion, I would like to introduce two projects among those jobs which
I completed, namely the Hwajeong Museum run by the Hahn Cultural Foundation in
South Korea and Toga Meditation Museum in Toyama prefecture, Japan.
3. Hahn
Cultural Foundation
The Hahn Cultural Foundation was inaugurated by Dr. Hahn Kwang-ho (80) the
present Honorary Chairman of the Foundation. Originally, he was a businessman.
He is an Honorary Chairman of Boehringer Ingelheim Korea Ltd. and a Chairman of
Hankook Samgong Co. Ltd., an agricultural chemicals company.
He collected almost 20 thousands oriental artifacts, including ceramics, fans,
calligraphy, paintings and erotic paintings for 40 years since in 1962. He
started to devote himself to collecting thangkas since the late 1980s, and his
collection almost reaches 2500 objects now.
In 1996, the Hahn Cultural Foundation started to publish the catalogue of their
Tibetan collection as the first project after the registration as a public
institution by the Education Ministry of the Republic of Korea.
Dr. Hahn Kwang-ho asked the late Prof. emeritus Namio Egami of the University of
Tokyo, a renowned Japanese Archaeologist, to recommend somebody to write
captions of their Tibetan collection.
A long time back, I traveled Tibet immediately after the end of the Cultural
Revolution with Prof. Egami. And that was the reason why I was recommended to Dr
Hahn Kwang-ho. After visiting Korea, I selected 100 items out of the collection,
wrote captions on them and included a general introduction to Tibetan art.
Hence, the first catalogue of their collection, Art of Thangka Vol.1 was
published in 1997.
Originally, they published Art of Thangka as a Korean-English bilingual edition.
But the catalogue did not sell well since Korean social interest in Tibet was
not so high as in the West. So I advised Dr. Hahn Kwang-ho to publish the
Japanese-English bilingual edition.
I introduced a Japanese publisher Rinsen to Dr Hahn as the exclusive import
agent in Japan and through Rinsen the Japanese edition was brought out the next
year. Fortunately the Japanese edition sold several hundred copies per volume
and the foundation could retrieve the printing expenses.
At that time, I did not think that their collection would increase largely after
the completion of the catalogue. However Dr.Hahn's enthusiasm for the collection
would not stop. Vol.2 was published soon after the publication of Vol.1 in 1999.
And now they have a five-volume catalogue of Tibetan Art and each volume
contains 100 items.
Theoretically, we could publish a 25 volume catalogue since the foundation
possesses 2500 thangkas/tsakalis. However, quite modern paintings made after
1959, badly damaged pieces and cheap articles of poor quality are also included
in the collection. So we must select carefully the paintings worthy of
cataloguing.
This year, we are planning to edit the Vol.6 of Art of Thangka. It shall be the
final volume of their official catalogue, I anticipate.
In 1999, the Hwa-jeong Museum managed by the Hahn Cultural Foundation opened at
I-tae-wong, an upscale residential area in Seoul. Thus Dr. Hahn's ambition to
construct a private museum for his collection was achieved to some extent.
However this museum was too small to exhibit and store the whole collection of
the foundation since the museum occupied the underground and first floors of Dr.
Hahn's son's private residence.
From 2001 to 2002, the Hahn Cultural Foundation's Tibetan collection was
exhibited at 5 museums in Japan. I selected 90 pieces from the collection and
supervised the exhibition. This exhibition was titled as "The World of Thangka"
and collected 53000 visitors in total. The official catalogue which I edited
sold very well and we had to print an additional 1,500 copies during the
exhibition.
By the way, I noticed that some of Hahn collections were not of Tibetan but of
Nepalese origin since they contain Newari inscriptions at the bottom.
So when the Hahn collection was exhibited at Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, I invited
my friend Mr Kazumi Yoshizaki, an expert on Nepalese Buddhism, to decipher
Newari inscriptions.
And he has already written an article on Newari inscriptions of these paintings.
According to him, several Thangkas containing Newari inscriptions were not made
in Kathmandu valley but made at Tashilhunpo monastery and Lhasa.
These paintings were donated by Newari marchants/vajracharyas who stayed Tibet
on business.
In 2003, the Hahn Cultural Foundation's collection was shown at the "Tibetan
Legacy" exhibition of the British Museum. It was the highlight in Dr. Hahn
Kwang-ho's personal history.
In the same year, the conference of the International Association of Tibetan
Studies was held at Oxford University where I studied Sanskrit manuscripts which
I discovered in Kathmandu for one semester as a Spalding Visiting Fellow.
So I requested the BM and the Michael Aris Foundation which hosted the
conference to set the date of the opening of the exhibition during the
international conference and we received Mr. Anthony Aris, the chairman of
Michael Aris Foundation, and 10 world renowned Tibetologists including Prof.
David P.Jackson, Prof. Matthew Kapstein, Prof. Erberto Lo Bue and Dr.Christian
Luczanits in the opening reception.
In 2006 the Hahn Cultural Foundation constructed a new Hwa-jeong Museum. As
explained before, the old Hwa-jeong Museum was too small to store the entire
collection of the foundation. Therefore the Hahn Cultural Foundation reformed
the old office building of the foundation in Pyeongchang-dong and annexed the
newly-constructed 4 storied museum. Now Mrs.Hahn Hae-joo, the third daughter of
the founder, was installed as the new director of the museum.
The first floor of the museum is for the permanent exhibition of Tibetan art. On
the other hand, the second floor is for the temporary exhibition of the
foundation's other collection such as Chinese, Korean and erotic paintings.
By the way, the present temporary exhibition is on the Tibetan Book of the Dead.
So two floors are fully occupied by Tibetan art. And now they are planning to
construct new exhibition halls and convenient facilities.
On this occation, I have summarized the activities of the Hahn Cultural
Foundation. Honestly speaking, some feeling of rivalry exists between Japan and
Korea since we had ruled Korea over 35 years and it hurt their pride very much.
Such a big collection should be run by Korean staff, I think. But,
unfortunately, curators' knowledge about Tibetan and Nepalese art is not enough
to manage Tibetan and Nepalese art without my help.
I am thinking, after the completion of their official catalogues, I will
transfer my accademic consultancy on Tibetan and Nepalese art to curators step
by step.
4.Toga
Meditation Museum
The Toga Meditation Museum is the only theme park focused on Tibeto-Nepalese
Buddhist art inaugurated by the local government in Japan. Now this museum is
managed by a quasi-public corporation named the Toga Furusato Foundation. Next I
will give an outline of this museum.
Toga village is located in the south west of Toyama prefecture. In spite of its
vast area, the population is under 1000. It is one of the most depopulated
villages in Japan.
Buck wheat noodles called Soba in Japan has played an important role in the
development of this village. Soba has become famous as a specialty of Toga. The
Soba no sato (buck wheat noodle village) has three soba restaurants, a hotel and
a museum dedicated to soba. There are also facilities to experience making and
eating your own soba noodles.
There is not only information about Japanese soba history but also information
from around the world. In 1989, the Toga village office first dispatched the
delegates to the Tukuche village in lower Mustang of Nepal and signed a
friendship treaty. Toga village originally intended to collect materials for the
Soba Museum since the Himalayan area of Nepal was thought to be the place of
origin of buck wheat and this area still now has a unique food using buck wheat.
But after visiting a temple of Tibetan Buddhism in Tukuche, they were deeply
impressed by the beautiful Buddhist wall paintings painted by the late Shanta
Dhoj Tulachan and his son, Sashi Dhoj Tulachan. And they requested Sashi Dhoj
Tulachan to paint mandalas for their village. This request became the start of
the mandala project of this village.
The Meditation Museum houses 6 Buddhist paintings, each measuring 4 by 4 meters.
They were painted in Toga by Sashi Dhoj Tulachan, a Tibetan Buddhist painter
from Tukuche. Our painter was born of a sNgag pa family, a lay practitioner of
the rNying ma pa order of Tibetan Buddhism in Tukuche. After getting basic
training as a Buddhist painter from his father, he studied Buddhist painting
under several teachers. Particularly, Sakya bco brgyad khri chen, the abbot of
the Tibetan Buddhist Temple in Lumbini, the birth place of the lord Buddha, and
Byams chen dgon pa at Bodhnath was his root teacher.
He initially spent one and a half years in Toga, completing two mandalas of 42
peaceful and 58 wrathful deities and two other buddhist paintings, namely that
of Amitabha's pure land and Eleven-headed one thousand-armed Avalokiteshvara, in
the spring of 1991.
Then after the completion of paintings, the village constructed the building to
enshrine these paintings and they named it Toga Meditation Museum (Meiso no sato).
In 1994, when a video program "Tibetan Book of the Dead" was produced in Japan,
the scene of the recitation of the Bar do thos grol by Nyi-lcang Rinpoche was
taken in front of the mandala of 42 peaceful deities in this museum. And the
English version of it was shown at the Rubin Museum of Art, New York in the
summer of 2006.
In 1997, when a Nepalese film director Gagan Birahee produced "Miteree Gaon" or
the Friendship Village, a film portraying the cultural exchange between two
villages, the Meditaiion Museum became the base of the location in Japan and
several important scenes were taken here.
After finishing study in Nepal, I visited Toga in 1989 and met the painter first
time.
And after the completion of the paintings, I was asked to translate the captions
of them in 1991. Thereafter I was frequently asked to help them and finally was
appointed to the chief curator of this museum. But the title of chief curator is
merely an honorary one.
These paintings used to attract about 10.000 sightseers a year and contributed
the development of tourism. Therefore, the village decided to enlarge this spot
and constructed a restaurant, guest house and the beautiful garden in the shape
of mandala.
In 1994 Mr.Tulachand revisited Toga and completed two more mandalas known as the
Ryokai Mandala or the two realm Mandalas.
The Ryokai Mandalas, the set of Garbha Mandala and Vajradhatu Mandala, that were
conveyed to Japan from Tang dynasty China at the beginning of the ninth century
by Kukai, the founder of Japanese Esoteric Buddhism, did not only constitute the
center for the Buddhist icons in Japan, but they also affected the entire
culture of Japan as well.
These two mandalas came into existence in 7th to 8th century in India separately
and afterwards were combined in China by Hui-guo, the Chinese teacher of Kukai,
and were transmitted to Japan.
These two Mandalas were transmitted into Tibet too, though they are not
combined. And the iconography of these two Mandalas is very different from that
of Japan.
These two Mandalas are not so popular in Tibet as in Japan. Therefore
Mr.Tulachan has not depicted these two Mandalas yet. Therefore I provided many
texts describing the iconography of the Garbha and Vajradhatu Mandalas as well
as photographs of the examples of these two Mandalas in Tibet. Fortunately our
painter can read Tibetan texts well since he had received basic training as a
Buddhist lay practitioner.
Therefore, the works have no equal in Nepal, Tibet or Japan and are a unique
example for comparison of Tibeto-Nepalese and Sino-Japanese traditions of
mandala.
In his first stay, our painter painted 4 paintings in only one and a half years.
But he spent nearly two years for these two mandalas. Therefore, artistic
techniques such as gradation, shading and textures were nicely executed and it
never fail to impress the many people that come to see them.
5.Image
database of Tibetan mandalas using computer graphics
Even though located in a remote place, Toga used to enjoy some amount of
financial support for the depopulated area from the Government of Japan. That is
the reason why a small village like Toga could construct such a theme park
centred on Tibeto-Nepalese mandala.
But now, the situation has been completely changed. Due to the fiscal
reconstruction of the central government, financial support was cut off and the
village was merged into newly born Nanto City. Therefore, our museum cannot
continue yearly exhibition and I decided to make new exhibits by myself.
In 1991, in a Japanese private collection, which I had been asked to appraise, I
found a collection of mandalas in the form of two hand scrolls, namely 46*540cm
and 46*800cm, and I discovered that they represented complete sets of the
mandala collection called "the Vajravali and Mitra's One Hundred." (rdor phreng
dang mi tra) Subsequently, these scrolls were purchased by the Hahn Cultural
Foundation and were included in Vol.2 of their official catalogue, the Art of
Thangka.
Compared with the mandala collections kept in the West, we can detect some
irregular iconometry and color schemes inside the square mansion in these
handscrolls. They seemed to me to be a painting error. But after some
investigation, I discovered that some of them coincide with the textual source
of the mandala or ritual manuals. This suggests that these handscrolls are
compiled by a tantric master well-versed in Buddhist iconography.
In this way, the handscrolls of mandalas in the Hahn Cultural Foundation,
despite the sketchy quality of the drawings of the mandalas, with pale colours
and small in size, provide us with valuable information for the study of
mandalas. Therefore, I plan to compile an image database of mandalas using
computer graphics by extracting the iconographical information, such as pattern
and colour scheme inside the square mansion.
In 2001, I first created some computer graphics mandalas and used them as
illustrations for the catalogue of the Hahn Cultural Foundation's exhibition in
Japan, "The World of Thangka." However, the resolution of the computer graphics
per mandala was a mere 1,300,000 pixels.
In 2003 I created a new image database of the mandalas and exhibited it at the
annual exhibition held at Toga Meditation Museum. At that time, the resolution
of the computer graphics reached 5,000,000 pixels, about three times larger than
before. Because of discoloration, we had to remove all the mandalas after half a
year since we had used dye inks for the printouts.
In 2004, several computer graphics mandalas were on display at the International
Mountain Museum in Pokhara.
After making further improvements to the data, such as raising the resolution of
complicated mandalas to 18,000,000 pixels, I again exhibited them at the Toga
Meditation Museum in 2006. This time, we printed them out with pigment inks, and
according to the maker the ink should last for ten years. Therefore, they will
become a permanent exhibit within the Toga Meditation Museum.
And after the completion of image database, I was planning to publish it. Owing
to the popularization of the Internet, Japanese publishing companies are now
confronting difficulties never experienced before, and no publisher is willing
to take the risk of publishing academic works in small runs.
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But I am glad to be able to report to you that
this image database was brought out in this April by Yamakawa Publications.
Please refer to the book which I brought with me to circulate.
The Hahn Cultural Foundation kindly promised the
publisher to purchase 200 copies in advance. That was a great help for the
publication.
And now, I am planning the publication of the English version of the image
database. If somebody is interested in it, please contact me afterward.
Thank you once again for your attention.
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