Page 107 - JAPAN THE SHAPING OFDAIMYO CULTURE 1185-1868

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46 Itchin bot of Konkoji, and the founder of Shô- Details about the artist Kóshun are
Kóshun (fl. 1334) jôkôji in Kanagawa Prefecture, the head- unknown. However, like Kóshu, the sculp-
polychromed wood quarters of the Jiji sect. However, in the tor of a 1420 portrait of Ippen, also for-
h. 79.0(31^/8) course of the recent restoration, writing merly at Konkôji, Kôshun is thought to be
Nanbokuchô period, 1334 was found inside the statue, stating that a Kei-school sculptor and later follower of
Chôrakuji, Kyoto Koshun sculpted this portrait of the fifty- the famous Unkei (d. 1223). NK
Important Cultural Property seven-year-old Yo Amidabutsu (the Bud-
dhist name of Itchin). Itchin (1278-1355),
This is one of seven portrait sculptures of the sixth patriarch of the Jiji sect, was 47 Yishan Yining
Jishü-school patriarchs from Konkôji, the the abbot of Shôjôkôji and also later be- polychromed wood
Jishü training temple on Shichijo Street in came the first abbot of the training temple h. 76.0(297/3)
Kamakura period, c. 1317
Kyoto. When Konkôji was closed in 1908, Kôshôji, on Ichijó Street in Kyoto.
all seven statues were moved to Chôrakuji The statue wears a simple kesa Nanzen'in, Kyoto
in Kyoto. Jishü is a populist branch of the (priest's mantle) over a priestly robe. The
devotional Jódo (Pure Land, or Amidist) palms, joined in front of the chest, are Yishan Yining (1247-1317), known in Japan
sect of Buddhism. It was founded by the common to seated portraits of Jishü as Issan Kokushi (National Teacher), was
monk Ippen (1239-1289) in the mid- priests. The face, with crystal eyes, is de- an erudite priest of Chinese Rinzai Zen
Kamakura period and remained a consid- scriptively rendered. This portrait is the Buddhism who came to Japan in 1299 car-
erable force in Japanese religious life finest and oldest of the group of seven rying a diplomatic letter from Emperor
through the fifteenth century, patronized Chôrakuji sculptures, and it is significant Chengzong of the Yuan dynasty of China.
especially by common people and by the as a rare ;uzo, that is, a portrait made dur- Although suspected by the Kamakura sho-
tough and unsophisticated warriors from ing the subject's lifetime. (Most Japanese gunate of being a Yuan spy, this deeply
eastern Japan. "portraits" were posthumous, sometimes cultured man had a strong spiritual impact
According to temple tradition, this by many generations.) on many people, including Hôjô Sadatoki
statue depicts Donkai (1265-1327), the (1271-1311), the shogunal regent from 1284
fourth patriarch of the Ji sect, the first ab- to 1301. Yishan became the abbot of Ken-
chôji, Engakuji, and Jôchiji, renowned

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