Page 109 - JAPAN THE SHAPING OFDAIMYO CULTURE 1185-1868

Zen monasteries of Kamakura. His fame with chinsó sculpture (portraits of Zen returned to Kyoto with the backing of the
reached finally to Kyoto where he was in- priests), he holds a hossu (whisk with long shogunate and there, under the auspices
vited by the retired emperor Go-Uda white hairs, symbolic of priestly office and of the shogun Yoriie, converted Kenninji
(1267-1324), and was appointed the third the brushing away of worldly thoughts) in to the practice of Rinzai Zen. The affinity
abbot of Nanzenji. Go-Uda, devoted to his right hand and sits on a chair (not ex- of the warrior class for Zen, and the close
Yishan's faith, posthumously bestowed on hibited). Chinsd sculpture typically cap- relationships between members of the ba-
the priest the title Kokushi and built a tures the realistic appearance of the kufu and Zen prelates, which character-
mausoleum for him beside that of the em- model, including such details as the large ized the following several centuries, had
peror Kameyama (1249-1305), Go-Uda's fa- mole on the left eyelid. The result is that their beginnings in the work of Eisai. NK
ther. Yishan is known as the father of the person's spirit also is conveyed. The
Gozan Bungaku (Literature of the Five mild expression, the relaxed pose, and the 50 Toyotomi Hideyoshi
Mountains), the literary movement es- clothing, which is more or less symmetri- polychromed wood
poused by the scholar-monks of Japanese cal, capture the unruffled state of mind of h. 73.8 (29)
Zen in the fourteenth and fifteenth centu- the model. This fine chinsd was probably
ries. He was also instrumental in transmit- made around the time of Mujú's death in Momoyama period, c. 1598-1615
ting from China to Japan the Zhu Xi 1312. Osaka City
school of Confucianism. The head and body are made of two Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598), the sec-
An excellent example of chinsd sculp- hollow pieces of wood, joined front to ond "great unifier" of Japan, began his ca-
ture (portraits of Zen priests), this statue, back. The Hdkydin dharani, a set of Eso- reer in the service of the first, Oda
probably made soon after Yishan's death teric Buddhist incantations, is written in- Nobunga (1534-1582), whose military ge-
in 1317, is enshrined at Nanzen'in, a sub- side, in Sanskrit. Most of the polychromy nius carried him from a minor domain in
temple of Nanzenji and the site of the that originally covered the entire surface is Owari Province to the mastery of most of
mausoleums of Kameyama and Yishan. now lost, exposing the underlayers of sabi Japan. Hideyoshi's rise was even more dra-
Made of Japanese cypress (hinoki), the urushi (raw lacquer mixed with pulverized matic: this son of a peasant farmer was
main part of the head and torso are made stone) and black lacquer. SH Nobunaga's equal as a strategist and his
of two hollow pieces joined front to back. superior as a diplomat. By 1590 he had re-
The eyes are crystal. Yishan holds a stick 49 Myóan Eisai duced all of Japan to peace and fealty, had
called a keisaku (a disciplinary stick used polychromed wood taken the title of Imperial Regent, and
on monks whose attention wandered dur- could turn his attention to legitimating
ing meditation) in his right hand, and his h. 60.3 (233/4) and controlling what he had won. Though
robe and kesa (priest's mantle) draped over Kamakura period, i3th-i4th century his notion of civil administration was a
the chair (not exhibited). NK Jufukuji, Kanagawa Prefecture
simple and quite sketchy extension of the
Myôan Eisai (1141-1215) owes his eminence domainal administration of a daimyo, his
48 Mujü Ichien in Japanese history to two accomplish- land survey (begun in 1585) transformed
polychromed wood ments: the propagation of Rinzai Zen as Japanese social and cadastral organization
h. 79.4 (31^/4) an independent school of Buddhism, and to the forms that prevailed throughout the
Kamakura period, c. 1312 the reintroduction (from China) of tea Edo period. His territorial ambitions ex-
drinking and tea cultivation after several tended to the (unachieved) conquest of
Chômoji, Aichi Prefecture centuries of disuse. Born in present-day China; he understood the value of manu-
Important Cultural Property
Okayama Prefecture, he began religious facturing and commerce and controlled
Mujü Ichien, born in 1226 in Kamakura, life as a student of Esoteric doctrines, es- them for his benefit; and his patronage of
was probably a member of the Kajiwara pecially Tendai. But in the course of two the arts was, by contemporary accounts,
family, which served the Kamakura sho- trips to China to study Buddhist doctrine both grandiose and knowing.
gunate. After taking the tonsure in Hitachi he became persuaded of the greater valid- As this sculpture suggests, he was ap-
Province (present-day Ibaraki Prefecture), ity of Rinzai Zen teachings. Zen doctrines parently an exceedingly homely man. No-
he studied the doctrines of the older had been known in Japan since the sev- bunaga, who greatly valued his abilities,
schools of Buddhism. He also studied Zen enth century, but only as elements in the called him "Monkey" (saru). Much of the
as a disciple of Enni Ben'en (1202-1280) at teachings of other Buddhist schools; it was extant portrait sculpture of Hideyoshi, like
Tôfukuji, a major Zen monastery in Eisai who established Rinzai Zen as an in- the painted portraits of him, was produced
Kyoto. He thus acquired a wide range of dependent school, which soon acquired a for the shrines built after his death. When
Buddhist learning. In 1262 Mujú became great and influential following. the Toyotomi family was destroyed by To-
the founding abbot of Chômoji, where he On his return in 1191 from the second kugawa leyasu (1543-1616) in 1615, these
lived for fifty years, during which time he of his two trips to China, Eisai preached shrines, which deified Hideyoshi, were de-
wrote many books, including Sasekishù (A for a time in Kyushu, where he founded stroyed or closed. Thus this sculpture can
Collection of Sand and Pebbles), a famous Shôfukuji (near Hakata, present-day Fu- be dated to the period between 1598 and
anthology of Buddhist stories in ten vol- kuoka) and cultivated the tea seeds he had 1615.
umes. In 1282 he declined an invitation to brought with him. He expressed his con- Although its history is not known, this
become the second abbot of Tôfukuji. He viction of the life- and health-giving prop- work is one of the most idiosyncratic ex-
died in 1312 at the age of eighty-six at erties of tea in Kissa ydjdki (On Drinking amples of sculpted portraits of Hideyoshi.
Rengeji in Ise (Mie Prefecture), which he Tea and Maintaining Health). His Zen While the face reflects the stylized expres-
also headed. He left the following parting teachings met with opposition from the es- sion of the No mask of an old man, it still
verse: tablished schools, and the court in Kyoto retains a sense of realism and individuality.
A seagull floats over the sea enjoined Eisai to silence on the subject of The work is made with the yosegi zukuri
Seven and eighty years Zen. But in 1199 he was in Kamakura, technique (hollow joined woodblock), and
The wind rests, the waves are still where his converts among the shogunate the coloring and pedestal are later addi-
Calm as in the days of yore. and the warriors included Hôjô Masako tions. NYS
Muju's portrait is enshrined in the and Minamoto Yoriie, widow and son of
Founder's Hall at Chômoji. As is common Yoritomo. In Kamakura in 1200 he became
founding abbot of Jufukuji, and in 1202 he

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