2-754-034 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Nigatsudo Burned Sutra, ca. 744. This fragment of the Flower Garland Sutra (Kegonkyo) comes from a set of sixty handscrolls donated to the temple Todaiji in Nara in 744. Damaged by a fire at the temple’s Nigatsudo Hall, the surviving sections are known today as Nigatsudo Burned Sutras (Nigatsudo yakegyo). The scripture’s singed edges, capturing the Buddhist idea that everything is impermanent, has made these remnants especially prized.