Questions and Answers about the Management of Jingo-ji temple

{br=>[[]], content=>[ This is a record of questions asked by Priest Shōzen and answers by Priest Myō'e (1173-1232) about the management of Jingo-ji temple. It was written by Priest Myō'e himself when he was fifty-two years old. The questions concerned the following: whether it was proper to move used tatami-mats, which had once been in the chapel of the Kondō hall, to the Jibutsu-dō hall to use them there; whether it was right to convert an old container for \Mandala Paintings of the Two Realms\ into a container for a Buddhist statue; whether it was allowed to cultivate rice fields at the ancient site of the temple of Hiraoka, etc. The Japanese pronunciation of Chinese characters given in kana-type Japanese characters and the marks, which indicate the order in which Chinese phrases are to be read in the Japanese way, were added by Myō'e himself.

According to the inscription, Myō'e wrote this scroll of questions and answers by the order of Zinshō-bō on March 7, 1224 and dedicated it to him., As Zemmyō-ji temple was built in 1223 at the ancient site of the temple of Hiraoka, this record of questions and answers, which included the question about the estate of Hiraoka temple, may have been discussed before 1223 but were written down later in 1224 on this scroll. The title of this record is included in the List of Works by Priest Myō'e. This record is important in so far as it allows to observe concrete examples of Myō'e's thinking.]}

— Museum description: Nara National Museum (CC BY 4.0), via ColBase / Japan Search.