The frontispiece of this sutra chapter illustrates the Buddha’s first sermon, delivered at the Deer Park near Sarnarth in India. The Buddha is flanked by two bodhisattvas who, like the Buddha, are seated on lotus platforms. Behind the bodhisattvas sit the five ascetics who became the Buddha’s disciples, dressed in simple robes. Several dappled deer set the scene. The chapter, from the Great Wisdom Sutra (Daihannyakyō; Sanskrit: Mahaprajnaparamita), is one of more than five thousand scrolls of Buddhist scripture that were dedicated in 1176 to the northern Japanese temple Chūsonji by the nobleman Fujiwara Hidehira (d. 1187) for the salvation of his father, Motohira (d. 1157). An inscription below the title and chapter heading notes that the text follows the translation by the Chinese monk Xuanzang (602–664). The execution of the calligraphy is of a high quality consistent with works produced for wealthy temples in the capital of Kyoto.
