Page 215 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

entirely in vegetables: Shakyamuni is represented as a giant radish, the sala trees as cornstalks, the
mournful followers as a varied agricultural array. Although Jakuchü's version could be seen as more
sacrilegious than Itchó's, its careful mimesis suggests a genre closer to allegory than farce. It has been
suggested that this painting is more than a simple parody. Jakuchü managed his family's wholesale
vegetable business until he retired to dedicate his time entirely to painting. He was not only a committed
vegetarian but also a self-identified Buddhist who often appended the term kojt, "Buddhist layman"
to his signature. This work, like many of his others, may in fact have been donated by the artist to his
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family temple, perhaps to commemorate the death of his brother in 1792, or the anniversary of the
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death of his mother. In any event, the impact of this painting depends on the viewer's intimate know-
21 4 ledge of the conventional image combined with Jakuchú's careful attention to iconographie detail and
his supremely confident brushwork.

T H E The artistic productions of Edo priests reflect a similar fluidity between art and religion. Clerics such
P R I E S T L Y as Hakuin Ekaku (1685 -1769), Sengai Gibon (1750-1837), and Jiun Onkó (1718 -1804) clearly saw a con-
A R T S tinuity between Buddhist practice and artistic expression. Although their remarkable ink paintings
and calligraphy, referred to by the modern term Zenga (Zen pictures), have sometimes been described
as unencumbered by cultural convention or as spontaneous expressions of the enlightened mind, the
lives and the writings of these painter-priests call into question so idealized a view. Zenga were often
created as tokens of gratitude for monetary gifts by temple patrons. They were usually not, as often
suggested by modern devotees of Zen art or tea ceremony practitioners, "aids to meditation" or "sym-
bols of enlightenment." That Zenga came to be treasured over the centuries as traces of the master's
brush is testament to their power and significance to the owner, but it should not be assumed that
they played an important role in the teaching that took place between master and student. The most
rigorous Zen teachers have always shown a strong distrust of "artistic" didactic means such as paint-
ing, calligraphy, poetry, and even language itself. This is not to say that Zenga do not have high artistic
merit, in spite of their original function and the fact that their makers were not trained artists. Indeed

their power derives in part from these circumstances. If one is to interpret their brushwork in terms
of their religiosity, then one needs to ask first about the specific beliefs and practices to which they
subscribed. The intellectual and biographical complexity of individuals such as Hakuin and Jiun pre-
sent a challenge to any simplistic understanding of Edo Buddhism as either atrophied or monolithic.
In many ways the life of Hakuin exemplifies the career of a serious Buddhist monk, Zen or
otherwise, during the Edo period. Like many others, he started early and studied under a succession
of teachers, moving freely from one to the next, continually searching for the appropriate guide to the
next stage in his development. In his avoidance of the trappings of wealth and power he typified the
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great Zen monks of the time. For the most part he stayed away from the massive Zen monasteries
of Kyoto and Kamakura with their ties to wealthy patrons and government leaders. He revived a small
temple in the countryside near his birthplace, Shôinji near Mount Fuji, where he had received his first
vows and where he lived most of the time.
Although Hakuin is one of a number of Edo-period Zen priests, including Bankei Yôtaku and
Suzuki Shósan, who addressed Zen teachings to the everyday concerns of the laity, he was not a social
reformer by any means. The content of his teaching was, like that of Bankei and Shósan, religiously
syncretic, politically conservative, and supportive of the social status quo. His writings, for example,