JJRS > Volume 45 Issue 2 The Materiality of a Promise: Interworldly Contracts in Medieval Buddhist Promotional Campaign Imagery

Hirasawa, Caroline

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Narratives in the fourteenth-century didactic paintings Shidoji engi e 志度寺 縁起絵 and Yūzū nenbutsu engi 融通念仏縁起 preach that supernatural entities are actively involved in Buddhist devotional projects. Vows and other commitments to engage in nenbutsu practice, or to restore a temple, initiate exchanges with the heavens and the netherworld that support their fulfillment. Interworldly networks thereby convey to audiences the rewards of participation in a promotional or fundraising campaign and back that up with the threat of hell. Both image contexts portray documents as a medium for transcending worlds, emphasizing writing in ways that empower campaign documents.