Page 216 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

contain many letters of advice to various feudal lords. In them Hakuin relates cautionary tales, ex-
tols conventional Confucian virtues of governance, and praises the meditative powers of his samurai
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patrons. For his other lay followers Hakuin composed popular religious songs, compiled miracle
tales, and encouraged all — samurai, monk, and commoner — to recite Buddhist incantations to
bring health and longevity.
Hakuin's historical importance, however, is in his role as the revitalizer of the practice of Zen.
He is revered as the restorer of the Rinzai sect; indeed all Rinzai monks today trace their lineage back
to him. His is the only surviving Rinzai tradition. While Hakuin's paintings often exhibit humor, irrev-
erence is absent from his choice of subject matter in the two paintings exhibited here (cats. 123,124).
Daruma, the Japanese name for the legendary monk Bodhidharma, who is said to have brought Zen 215
from India to China, is claimed by all followers of the Zen school as the tradition's first patriarch. 14
The subject of Hakuin's other portrait is a similarly patriarchal figure. Daitó Kokushi, the posthumous
title granted Shühó Myóchó, was the Kamakura master to whom Hakuin traced his own lineage.
Although Hakuin started painting late in his life, his art shows a distinct stylistic evolution: both his
calligraphy and painting progress from thin and spidery lines (cat. 123) to ones of remarkable boldness
and thickness (cat. 124). His final works are ropelike in their rounded volumetric line, all extraneous
cat. 123 details omitted in an achievement of extreme simplicity.
Hakuin Ekaku,
Daito Kofcushi, Another premier Zenga painter of the Edo period is the monk Sengai Gibon. Like Hakuin,
hanging scroll; ink on paper, Sengai turned seriously to painting and calligraphy only late in life; in Sengai's case, it was after his
131x56.3(51x22),
Eisei Bunko Foundation, retirement in 1811 from the abbacy of Shófukuji in Kyushu, Japan's oldest Zen temple. Sengai too pro-
Tokyo
duced vast numbers of works, achieving a style even simpler, more cartoonlike than Hakuin's. His
range of themes was likewise enormous, from depictions of Tang-period monks such as Hanshan and
Shide (Japanese: Kanzan and Jittoku) to landscapes and Japanese folklore. Many of his themes were tra-
ditional, as were Hakuin's; it was in their execution and accompanying colophon that Sengai added
a Zen didactic element, often with a touch of humor. The paintings, and particularly the calligraphy,
vary greatly in style. His writing of Chinese phrases is loose, but his writing of Japanese attains a
cursive casualness that is utterly unaffected. His two best-known works are seen here (cats. 125,126).
In a perfect marriage of image and text, the former displays both humor and the depth of a success-
ful Zenga. The artist's grasp of the frog's essence is undergirded with layers of Zen meaning in the in-
scription. Perhaps the most famous of all Zenga, especially in the West, is the latter, Circle, Triangle,
Square. Much has been written on this work, which resembles a Rorschach test in its ability to evoke a
multiplicity of meanings, depending on the viewer. The monumentality of its three geometric forms
cat. 124
Hakuin Ekaku, suggests the elemental building blocks of the universe. Its appeal effortlessly crosses cultural barriers.
Daruma, The Buddhism of Jiun is distinctive for its hybrid quality. Jiun in fact may be seen to represent
hanging scroll; ink on paper,
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134.2 x 91.8 (52 /s x 36 Vs), both the reformist and syncretic tendencies in Edo religion. As a young boy Jiun received a Neo-
Seikenji, Shizuoka
Confucian education that contributed significantly to an early and passionate hatred of Buddhism
and its clergy. Upon the death of his father, however, he entered a Shingon (Esoteric Buddhist) temple
as a novice and was soon converted to the Buddhist path. Although an ordained priest of the Shingon
sect, he was also a student and practitioner of Zen, training under a master of the Sotó sect. Like
Hakuin, Jiun placed a renewed emphasis on rules of monastic discipline (Sanskrit: uinaya; Japanese:
ritsu). Yet he was also strongly influenced by the Ancient Learning (Kogaku) school of Edo Confucian-
ism and wrote extensively on Shinto. This suprasectarianism culminated in the formation of a