北魏興安二年舍利石函の圖像學

Abstract

A stone śarīra (Buddhist relic) casket dating to the second year of the Xing'an era (453 A.D.) in the Northern Wei period that was discovered in the foundation of a pagoda in the Jingzhi-si Temple at Dingzhou City in 1969 is the earliest known śarīra receptacle in China. In this paper, I present an elementary examination of the iconographic composition and ideological background of the engravings on this stone casket. On each side of the casket, we can see seated monks practicing asceticism with feral animals in a mountainous setting, and those in the upper sections are seated in arched caves. The mountain pattern on the stone casket precedes that of the Yungang Grottoes, which confirms the accuracy of the inscription identifying that the iconographies on the stone casket were engraved in the Xing'an era. The monk's robes and bags are common to those depicted in the images at the Yungang Grottoes, the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang and Horyu-ji Temple. In addition to the two monks seated in the mountain caves, the upper sections of the stone casket depict a Bodhisattva and three believers on the right side and two standing figures resembling the Buddha and an attendant on the left side. Although there is no conclusive evidence to support this interpretation, I propose the following regarding the identities of these figures : 1) Śākyamuni and five monks or 2) Maitreya and Mahākāśyapa. In any case, the composition of mountains and monks on the stone box indicates that these iconographies were related to Maitreya worship. Four relics were enshrined in a stone reliquary in the first burial of the Northern Wei period, and the tops of Buddhist pagodas were frequently decorated with carved motifs of Mount Sumeru during that time. It is possible that the stone casket's iconography is related to a succession from Śākyamuni Buddha relics found in the underground casket to Maitreya above Mount Sumeru that decorated the top of the pagoda.