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The Significance of the Central Asian Objects in the Shōsōin for Understanding the International Art Trade in the Seventh and Eighth Centuries

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The Significance of the Central Asian Objects in the Shōsōin for Understanding the International Art Trade in the Seventh and Eighth Centuries SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS Number 267 March, 2017 The Significance of the Central Asian Objects in the Shōsōin for Understanding the International Art Trade in the Seventh and Eighth Centuries by William E. Mierse Victor H. Mair, Editor Sino-Platonic Papers Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305 USA [email protected] www.sino-platonic.org SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS FOUNDED 1986 Editor-in-Chief VICTOR H. MAIR Associate Editors PAULA ROBERTS MARK SWOFFORD ISSN 2157-9679 (print) 2157-9687 (online) SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS is an occasional series dedicated to making available to specialists and the interested public the results of research that, because of its unconventional or controversial nature, might otherwise go unpublished. The editor-in-chief actively encourages younger, not yet well established, scholars and independent authors to submit manuscripts for consideration. Contributions in any of the major scholarly languages of the world, including romanized modern standard Mandarin (MSM) and Japanese, are acceptable. In special circumstances, papers written in one of the Sinitic topolects (fangyan) may be considered for publication. Although the chief focus of Sino-Platonic Papers is on the intercultural relations of China with other peoples, challenging and creative studies on a wide variety of philological subjects will be entertained. This series is not the place for safe, sober, and stodgy presentations. Sino- Platonic Papers prefers lively work that, while taking reasonable risks to advance the field, capitalizes on brilliant new insights into the development of civilization. Submissions are regularly sent out to be refereed, and extensive editorial suggestions for revision may be offered. Sino-Platonic Papers emphasizes substance over form. We do, however, strongly recommend that prospective authors consult our style guidelines at www.sino-platonic.org/stylesheet.doc. Manuscripts should be submitted as electronic files, preferably in Microsoft Word format. You may wish to use our sample document template, available here: www.sino-platonic.org/spp.dot. Beginning with issue no. 171, Sino-Platonic Papers has been published electronically on the Web at www.sino-platonic.org. Issues 1–170, however, will continue to be sold as paper copies until our stock runs out, after which they too will be made available on the Web. Please note: When the editor goes on an expedition or research trip, all operations (including filling orders) may temporarily cease for up to three months at a time. In such circumstances, those who wish to purchase various issues of SPP are requested to wait patiently until he returns. If issues are urgently needed while the editor is away, they may be requested through Interlibrary Loan. You should also check our Web site at www.sino-platonic.org, as back issues are regularly rereleased for free as PDF editions. Sino-Platonic Papers is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivs 2.5 License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 543 Howard Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA. The Significance of the Central Asian Objects in the Shōsōin for Understanding the International Art Trade in the Seventh and Eighth Centuries1 William E. Mierse University of Vermont In the first half of the eighth century CE, the Japanese Emperor Shōmo acquired a number of foreign objects. Among these were some of Central Asian or Mediterranean manufacture and others made in Chinese workshops but based on western prototypes. Many of these exotic pieces were deposited by his widow, Dowager Empress Komyo, in the treasure house of the Tōdai-ji temple–monastery at Nara not long after his death. These form an excellent representative sample of the high-quality goods that moved along the Silk Road in the eighth century, and — because Japan was a passive recipient of these objects rather than a player in the dynamic life of the Silk Roads economy — they offer a glimpse into the ways in which objects could acquire significance and importance as they were moved from one cultural setting to another. The Japanese court did not then receive foreign objects obtained on the open market in Japan, and Japanese taste, per se, was not influencing the production of foreign workshops. In some instances, an item itself or the prototype for the newly crafted work had no particular significance within the region of origin. They acquired importance as they were moved 1 A version of this article was presented at the annual meetings of the World History Association in Savannah, Georgia, July 2, 2015. The funding for the research trip to Japan was made possible through the generosity of the Richard and Pamela Ader Green and Gold Professorship. I wish to thank Atsuhiko Ogata, Chief of Textile Arrangement and Research Section of the Shōsōin Treasure House, and his daughter Akiko for taking time to show me aspects of the collection during my visit to Nara. I would also like to thank Thomas Noel of the University of Vermont Chinese Language Program for help with the Romanization of Chinese names, and the anonymous reviewers for their suggestions, though all statements, opinions, and mistakes in the paper remain my own. SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS, 267 along the various networks that joined together the Eurasian continent. Items that were commonplace in one setting were exotic in another. Something that functioned in the domestic context in which it was crafted could become suitable for sacred use in a new setting. Yet these works were all thought to be appropriate as gifts to the emperor and were considered worthy to be placed into the protective custody of the temple by the dowager empress. THE SHŌSŌIN AND THE COLLECTION Though the exact date for the construction of the storehouses (shōsō) that form the precinct (in), or shōsōin, of the Tōdai-ji temple–monastery at Nara is not known, the records that do survive indicate that the north storeroom was available for the repository of the approximately 650 gifts to the Tōdai-ji made by the dowager empress Komyo in 756 CE (Kennedy 1996: 148). This date indicates that the Shōsōin was functioning five years after the completion of the Tōdai-ji temple, ordered by Emperor Shōmu and overseen by the first abbot, Roben (Hayashi 1975: 11–12). However, it should be noted that dendrochronological studies of the tree rings in the main pillar of the central section indicate that the tree was felled almost fifteen years earlier, in 741 CE (Nara National Museum 2012: 9). The Tōdai-ji was the chief temple–monastery in the network of Buddhist monasteries established by Emperor Shōmu in 741 CE and known as Kokubun-ji. As the dominant temple– monastery in the system and as the major Buddhist center in the newly restored capital at Heijō, the Tōdai-ji was the center for rituals for the peace of the nation and the prosperity of the people. It was therefore the appropriate venue to which dowager empress Komyo made her gift of possessions of the deceased emperor Shōmu. The abdicated emperor passed away on May 2, 756 CE, and, after the forty- nine days of mourning prescribed by Buddhist law, the dowager empress offered the Universal Buddha (Rushana or Vairocana), housed in the Tōdai-ji monastery–temple, the emperor’s favorite personal and household belongings, 650 objects in all. The gifts were offerings to the Buddha to help confer merit on the deceased emperor and to destroy all sins. The empress penned a prolegomenon in which she stated, 2 MIERSE, “CENTRAL ASIAN OBJECTS IN THE SHŌSŌIN” So I desire to give succor to his august spirit by the performance of this good deed and therefore, for the sake of the late emperor, these various articles which he handled — girdles, ivory scepters, bows and arrows, collection of calligraphy, musical instruments, and the rest, which are in truth rare national treasures — I donate to the Todai-ji as a votive offering to Vairocana Buddha, various other buddhas, bodhisattvas, and all the saints. (Hayashi 1975: 34–36)2 In addition to this initial bequest in 756 CE, the empress made four more benefactions in 756 and 758. These objects were all collected together and placed in the north and central storerooms of the Shōsōin, where they remained until radical restructuring after World War II.3 Included in the first gift was a catalogue of the items, the Kokka Chimpo-cho (Catalogue of Rare National Treasures), to which the empress’s prolegomenon was added, and these two items together form the first volume of the Tōdai-ji Kemmotsu-cho (Catalogue of Gifts Dedicated to the Tōdai-ji). It is thus possible to isolate within the larger collection of the Shōsōin some of the items that formed this mid-eighth-century grouping (Kennedy 1996: 148). This makes the objects in the collection that can be traced back to the north and central storerooms of the Shōsōin a type of archaeological assemblage such that these objects form a kind of sealed deposit for which the dating is quite specific. The donated objects provide a rare opportunity to fully study examples of portable court art from the Nara period. These pieces represented the highest echelon of art, either manufactured by Japanese artists or introduced as exotic, foreign wares, and because of their subsequent careful treatment over the intervening 1300 years, they include some of the finest surviving specimens of eighth century CE artwork to be found anywhere in the world,4 though some of the textiles in particular have suffered deterioration (Kennedy 1996: 149), and fragments have been dispersed from 2 Adapted from J. Harada’s translation in “The Shoso-in, or Imperial Repository at Nara,” in Harada 1937.
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