Kōshiki are written procedures for performing Buddhist rituals and verses extoling the virtues of Buddhas, high priests, and other figures commanding reverence within the tradition. Do you see the small dots and dashes in red ink? Texts like this one are melodically chanted at Buddhist assemblies, and these notations indicate the rhythm and phrasings when intoned. This particular text copies one of the kōshiki found among the “Buddhist Ceremonial in Four Sessions,” a masterwork of the kōshiki genre composed in 1215 (Kenpō 3) by the Venerable Myōe (1173–1232), an important Kamakuraperiod priest. It elegiacally mourns the passing into nirvāṇa (J. nehan) of Śākyamuni, the historical Buddha. 
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