“Spiritual Matters: Material Culture and Japanese Religion” Lecture Series: Nichiren’s “Great Mandala”: Practice, Community, and Lineage

The “great mandala” (daimandara) devised by the Buddhist teacher Nichiren (1222-1282) depicts the assembly of the Lotus Sūtra on Sacred Vulture Peak. Inscribed entirely in characters, it is at once both sacred text and sacred object. In Nichiren’s lifetime, it served not only as a personal object of worship for his followers but united them as a community; in the later Nichiren tradition, it has also played a key role in lineage transmission and as a marker of sectarian identity.