The Book of the Dead

The Book of the Dead is a 2005 Japanese historical Buddhist stop motion animation feature film directed by Kihachirō Kawamoto. It is about the legend of Chūjō-hime who translated some of the significant Pure Land sutras from Chinese to Japanese, and is said to have witnessed weaving of Taima mandala by Amitabha Buddha himself & his attentdants from lotus stems. It is his second feature film, the first being the Rennyo and His Mother (1981) and is based on the novel of the same name by Shinobu Orikuchi. It appeared in a couple of film festivals in 2005 before going into wide release in Japan on 11 February 2006 and has since won several awards at international animation festivals. It was shown in cinemas across the United Kingdom in the spring of 2008 as part of Kawamoto: The Puppet Master, a touring season of the Watershed Media Centre, and was released on DVD-Video in North America on 22 April 2008.