Nigatsudō Burned Sutra

This fragment of the Flower Garland Sutra (Kegonkyō) comes from a set of sixty handscrolls donated to Tōdaiji Temple in Nara in 744. Damaged by a fire in the complex’s Nigatsudō Hall in 1667, the sections that come down to us are known as the Nigatsudō Burned Sutras (Nigatsudō yakegyō). The scripture’s singed edges capture the Buddhist idea that everything is impermanent, making these remnants especially prized. Such fragments also represent some of the earliest surviving examples of the practice of transcribing Buddhist texts using precious materials. The copying of religious writings was thought to confer spiritual merit on all those involved—whether the donors, the scribes, or the craftsmen who prepared the materials—and thus was a common undertaking in this period.