Segment of Kongō hannyakyō kaidai (Introduction to the Diamond Sutra)

The text of this manuscript is an introduction to the Diamond Sutra (Skt. Vajracchedikā prajñāpāramitāto sūtra, J. Kongō hannya kyō) authored by the priest Kūkai (also known as Kōbō Daishi, 774–835). What makes this copy especially rare is that it is in the hand of Kūkai himself, who is considered one of the three greatest calligraphers in all of Japanese history. This kind of introduction ( J. kaidai) typically explains the meaning of a sutra’s title and gives an overview of its contents. Kūkai’s introduction, however, explains the sutra’s title from two perspectives: a “revealed synopsis,” or shallow overview expressed in words, and an “arcane, esoteric” explanation, referring to its deeper, hidden meaning.
The Nara National Museum owns a segment from the same manuscript, which has been mounted as a handscroll (also designated a National Treasure); shorter fragments can be found in albums of exemplary calligraphy and elsewhere. Among these, the Kyoto National Museum scroll contains the longest existing intact section of the text, comprising a total of sixty-three lines. It begins with the phrase, “In this way, unlimited virtue is manifested within four lines,” and ends with “Thus the five-colored scriptures, we also call ‘sutras.’” The manuscript is written alternately in cursive and semi-cursive scripts. It shows signs of erasures and corrections in places, for which reason it is believed to have been a rough draft. In fact, as a rough draft, this text is considered all more valuable for its ability to bring us closer to the real Kūkai, one of the “Three Brushes” of Japan.
Conservation work was done on the scroll, between 2011 and 2013 at which time the backing papers of the former mounting were removed. It has now been restored to its original unlined state.