The King’s 1,001 Bodies: Sculpture, Multiplicity and Somaticity in the Hall of Thirty-Three Bays

The 1,000 life-sized statues of Senju Kannon in the thirteenth-century Sanjūsangendō temple in Kyoto contain hidden votive deposits—dhāraṇī texts, moon disks, and images of the bodhisattva—dating to the hall’s original construction in 1164. Placed inside the hollow statues, these materials form a concealed ritual layer complementing the hall’s multiplicity. This paper argues that the hall functioned as a space for esoteric ritual, where the retired emperor Goshirakawa (1127–1192) could ritually align his body with the bodhisattva through the “three mysteries.” The deposits correspond to mudrā, mantra recitation, and visualization practices, materializing esoteric ritual logic within the statues themselves. The hall integrates human, sculptural, and divine bodies into a network of correspondence, enacting a political theology in which sovereign authority is embodied. By linking visible multiplicity with hidden ritual objects, Sanjūsangendō emerges as a site where ritual, material culture, and political power converge through the shared language of the body.