Iconographical Sketch (Zuzō) for the "Benevolent Kings Sutra Mandala"

It shows exactly how to draw the deities in the *Benevolent Kings Sutra* so rituals look the same every time.

You see a tall, narrow scroll filled with tiny ink figures of gods, each seated on clouds or lotus petals.

This is a cheat-sheet for monks. It shows exactly how to draw the deities in the *Benevolent Kings Sutra* so rituals look the same every time. The original sketches came from China in the 800s, but this copy was made in Japan centuries later.

To see more quiet ritual guides like this, look up the subject: japan, heian period (794–1185).

The Benevolent Kings Sutra has been a highly valued Buddhist scripture in Japan since the Nara period (710–794), when it started to be recited in a ceremony to pray for the peace and protection of the country. In the 800s, the monk Kūkai brought back from China a new translation of the text as well as Buddhist iconographic sketches to perform the rituals based on the sutra. Five scroll sets of copies of the original sketches brought by Kūkai are preserved in Daigoji and Tōji temples in Kyoto. This sketch, which has figural depictions of deities on the front and deities symbolized by objects on the back, differs in some ways from each of those sets, and represents an alternate approach to creating a mandala based on the Benevolent Kings Sutra .