Tile sutra - Kawaragyo

While the clay tablets were still wet, the sutras were written on them with a spatula, then baked like tiles and buried in sutra mounds. There are many examples of paper sutra copies being buried, but there are only two or three known examples of tile-covered sutras, including those at Jofukuji Temple in Okayama Prefecture, Dainichiji Temple in Tottori Prefecture, Ise Komachizuka in Mie Prefecture, and Iimoriyama Sutra Mound in Fukuoka Prefecture. Most tile-covered sutras were buried at the end of the Heian period, along with copper-plated sutras, at the height of the popularity of sutra copying. They were the product of a religious act that sought to use the immutability of tiles to transmit sutras forever.

[Gorai Shigeru]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

粘土板のなま乾きのうちに篦(へら)で経文を書き、これを瓦のように焼いて経塚に埋納したもの。紙本(しほん)写経の埋納は数多いが、瓦経は、岡山県の常福寺、鳥取県の大日寺、三重県伊勢(いせ)小町塚、福岡県飯盛山(いいもりやま)経塚のほか2、3例が知られるにすぎない。瓦経の埋納は多く平安末期で、写経作善の極盛期に銅板経とともに行われた。瓦の不変性を利用して経典を永久に伝えようとした宗教行為の産物である。

［五来　重］

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