The Subject of the Scrolls

The topic of the project is the Karmic Origins of the Great Bodhisattva Hachiman Deity. The narrative is divided into two parts.

The first part covers the legendary invasion and subjugation of the Korean peninsula in the third century AD. The pre-historic, mythical empress Jingū revenges an alleged attack from "foreign countries" which results in the death of her consort, Emperor Chūai. Pregnant as she is, she achieves this unlikely martial success thanks to indigenous protective deities, most importantly Sumiyoshi. Sumiyoshi proves his supernatural powers in various episodes, and manages to acquire the two jewels from the dragon palace beneath the sea, which guarantee success in battle. A fierce sea battle against the overpowering army of the Koreans is decided for Empress Jingū, induced by the effectiveness of the jewels. The empress subjugates the Korean kings who were forced to promise to send annual shiploads of tribute to Japan.

The second part eulogizes Hachiman, who is the manifestation of the prince (and later Emperor Ōjin) born to Empress Jingū after her successful subjugation. He appears in various guises in locations, which later turn into sacred sites: as the name-giving ›eight banners‹ (hachi-man) in Hakozaki, as a tri-partite stone-bodied deity and golden falcon in Usa, and as a swordsmith who turns into a three-year old youth, also in Usa. Most scrolls conclude with the foundational stories of the major shrines devoted to Hachiman's veneration including the Usa Hachiman Shrine in present-day Ōita prefecture on Kyūshū Island and the Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine in Kyoto.

© Melanie Trede, Hachiman Digital Handscrolls

© Melanie Trede, Hachiman Digital Handscrolls

The second part eulogizes Hachiman, who is the manifestation of the prince (and later Emperor Ōjin) born to Empress Jingū after her successful subjugation. He appears in various guises in locations, which later turn into sacred sites: as the name-giving ›eight banners‹ (hachi-man) in Hakozaki, as a tri-partite stone-bodied deity and golden falcon in Usa, and as a swordsmith who turns into a three-year old youth, also in Usa. Most scrolls conclude with the foundational stories of the major shrines devoted to Hachiman's veneration including the Usa Hachiman Shrine in present-day Ōita prefecture on Kyūshū Island and the Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine in Kyoto.

© Melanie Trede, Hachiman Digital Handscrolls

© Melanie Trede, Hachiman Digital Handscrolls

Textual Sources

The account of the invasion of Korea is based on the earliest Japanese chronicles, written on an imperial order, Record of Ancient Matters (Kojiki) and Annals of Japan (Nihon shoki) dating to 712 and 720, respectively.

The storyline of the invasion was hugely embellished after the traumatic Mongol attacks in 1274 and 1281. The ultimately failed foreign invasions were credited to the protection of indigenous deities, which had caused, among others, the famous kamikaze or ›Wind of the Gods‹ to prevent the foreign ships from anchoring in Southern Japan. As a response, priests of the most important Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine in the capital of Kyoto composed two different versions of the Hachiman Gudōkun in the 1300s. This text served as a major source of the narrative text of the Hachiman scrolls.

© Melanie Trede, Hachiman Digital Handscrolls

© Melanie Trede, Hachiman Digital Handscrolls

Hachiman Scroll Versions

A rough estimate of more than one hundred handscrolls on the subject of the Karmic Origins of the Great Bodhisattva Hachiman must have existed throughout the Japanese islands.

While earlier versions must have existed, the first extant Hachiman handscroll dates to 1322, the second known extant version of 1389 is owned by the San Francisco Asian Art Museum and is the oldest scroll included in this project.

The fifteenth century saw a wide regional distribution and different local interpretations of the subject matter. Included in this project are two very similar versions, which originate from Awajishima Island located south of present-day Kōbe City. The 1433 version belongs to the Yura Minato Shrine, and the ex-Hamatenjingū scroll dating to 1527 resides today in the Umi-Mori Art Museum, Hiroshima. Two related, yet very differently composed scroll versions were created in Ube City in present-day Yamaguchi Prefecture. They include the scrolls at the Tsuneishi Hachiman Shrine dated to 1478, and the Kotozaki Hachiman Shrine (1491).

A rather unique interpretation of the text and subject matter is the 1672 set of two scrolls belonging to the Hakozaki Hachiman Shrine in present-day Fukuoka City.

The chronologically last scroll included in this project is the mid-eighteenth to nineteenth-century version stored at the National Library in Berlin. This work is an adaptation of the famous 1433 set of two scrolls dedicated to the Konda Hachiman Shrine in Habikino City by the shōgun Ashikaga Yoshinori (r. 1429–1441).

The San Francisco version, the Yura Minato Shrine version and the ex-Hamatenjingū version are each calligraphed with the rather rare script combination of Chinese characters and the so-called katakana syllabary. Buddhist priests of temples might have calligraphed these scrolls on behalf of the donors, which were priests as well; they were used to recite Buddhist scriptures with reading aids in katakana script. In fact, the Hachiman Gudōkun was written with the same script combination, too. The versions of the Tsuneishi Hachiman Shrine, the Kotozaki Hachiman Shrine, the Hakozaki Hachiman Shrine and the Berlin National Library are written with Chinese characters and hiragana syllabary, a combination, which was most common in Japanese pictorial narratives since the twelfth century.

The Hachiman scrolls' texts of this project include comparatively many Chinese characters due to their production in temple-shrine complexes, and their aim to be donated to shrines.