Mystery Solved!

I've had this woodblock print for over a year now, since picking it up at a temple (Sugimotodera) in Kamakura, Japan, and its meaning has always been a bit of a mystery. This weekend however I finally figured it all out. I was helping Bruce Rutledge with the Chin Music Press table at the ENMA Aki Matsuri and it just so happened we were right next to a table manned by two monks from a local temple. I noticed a tenugui on their table that looked surprisingly familiar and quickly realized it contained the same exact imagery as my print. The only difference was their version had hiragana accompanying each image. I found out from one of the monks that its actually a pictographic representation of the Buddhist Heart Sutra - Maka Hannyaharamita Shingyō in Japanese. As it turns out, in Edo period Japan kanji was perhaps not as well understand by the average Joe (Taro?). Thus in order to disseminate knowledge of the Heart Sutra among "illiterate" farmers and such, there was this genius idea to create a pictograph version of the Heart Sutra, accompanied by hiragana (which my version lacks). Basically, the way it works is the farmer, tired and dirty from a day in the field comes home and wants to chant the Heart Sutra. So he looks at the pictographs, says out loud the name of each object (all of which would have been familiar to any Edo period farmer) in the order its shown (top to bottom, right to left) and when he's done he's chanted the Heart Sutra in its entirety! Pure genius!

For example, the first vertical column from the right uses six pictographs to indicate the title, which would be "Heart Sutra" or Maka Hannyaharamita Shingyō. The first picture is of a kettle which is kama in Japanese. This kettle, however, is upside down - a clever way to indicate it should be read backwards as maka. Second we have a well-known mask from Noh theater called a hannya. Third we have a man's belly, which is hara in Japanese. Followed by a winnow (farming implement?) - mi, a rice field - ta, and a Shinto mirror - shingyo. Put them all together and what do you have? Maka Hannyaharamita Shingyō or "Heart Sutra." The chant then proceeds from right to left. Its important to note that the choice of objects has nothing to do with the meaning of the sutra, simply as an aid to pronounce it.

Now that I knew what I was looking for I could find a little more info on the internet and its been suggested that these pictographs were created more as a playful novelty than as a real tool for spreading the good word to the illiterate masses.