zuzōshō 図像抄

Keywords
Art History
Painting

Selected Iconography, a late Heian compendium on Buddhist iconography. Also called Jikkanshō 十巻抄 (Selections in Ten Chapters) and Son'yōshō 尊容抄 (Selection of Sacred Figures). Zuzōshō includes 142 illustrations of sacred images and mandalas *mandara 曼荼羅, arranged by iconographic types and excerpts from sutras and other sacred texts. Although the original was lost, there are numerous extant copies, some of which include colored pictures. The postscript to the Daigoji 醍醐寺 version, the earliest copy made in 1193, tells that Byōdōbō Yōgan 平等房永厳 (d. 1151) of Tōji 東寺 (Kyoto) presented the work to the emperor in Hōen 保延 6 (1140). However, the postscript to another version in Daigoji made in Bun'ei 文永 era (1264-75) tells that the true editor is Shōjōbō Ejū 勝定房恵什, whose name is also quoted in *Besson zakki 別尊雑記 (1170's) as an editor of Zuzōshō. The Jōrakuji 常楽寺 version (1226) is reproduced in Dainihon bukkyō zensho 大日本仏教全書, while the Entsūji 円通寺 version (1309/10) is included in Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大蔵経.