A Study of the Iconography and Background of the Paintings of Sakyamuni Buddha in the East Asia

不用说，释迦牟尼佛实际上是存在于古印度的一个人，而且是最早宣扬佛教教义的人。佛教艺术通过各种途径从印度传播到日本。在本研究中，我以东亚地区的释迦牟尼佛绘画为例，如中国、日本、韩国等地的释迦牟尼佛绘画，来探讨释迦牟尼佛图像的特点。释迦牟尼佛在我们的生活中一直扮演着重要的角色。在日本，有很多种释迦牟尼佛的绘画作品，如释迦牟尼佛的形象《释迦牟尼佛来藏》、释迦牟尼佛的生活《释迦牟尼佛来藏》、释迦牟尼佛的仙女《内汉藏》等等。这些作品都是直接表现的绘画，但我们在其他题材中也可以看到释迦牟尼佛的形象，如《法华经》的绘画、《观音住经》的绘画、密宗的绘画、以日本神灵为主要形象的水斋佛等。在这些绘画中，我们看到释迦牟尼佛布道，引导人们到西方净土，从地狱或饥饿世界拯救的场景。具体来说，释迦牟尼佛是我们最需要的佛教形象，不同于药师佛、阿弥陀佛等，中国和韩国的作品都可以与日本的作品进行比较，但这次研究不多，这将是今后的重要课题。

Needless to say, Sakyamuni Buddha is a person who existed in the ancient India actually, and preached Buddhism doctrine first. The Buddhist arts spread by various way from India, and reach to Japan. In this study, I take up the paintings of Sakyamuni Buddha in the East Asia, such as Janan, China, and Korea, and survey the characteristics of the image of Sakyamuni Buddha. It will be proved that Sakyamuni Buddha has been playing an important part in our life.In Japan, there are many kind of works of the paintings of Sakyamuni Buddha, for example, “Shaka-nyorai-zou" the figure of Sakyamuni Buddha, “Shaka-hassou-zu" the life of Sakyamuni, “Nehan-zu" the nirvana, and so on. These works are directly expressed paintings, but we can see the images on Sakyamuni Buddha in the other subjects as the paintings of the “Hoke-kyo" Lotus Sutra, the sutra of“Kan-muryoju-kyo", “Mikkyo" esoteric Buddhism, “Suijaku-ga" Buddha as primarily figure of Japanese deities, and so on. In these paintings, we see the scenes of Sakyamuni Buddha preaching sermon, guiding people to the Western Pure Land, saving from the hell or hunger world. Specificaly it can be pointed out that Sakyamuni Buddha is the most needed image of all Buddhist images for us, that is different from Bhaisajyaguru or Amitabha etc.The works in China and Korea available to compare with Japanese works, but this time I can't study so much that it will be the important assignment in the future.