Page 229 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

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Soga Shóhaku (1730-1781) Attributed to Katsushika Hokusai Soga Shóhaku (1730-1781)
Demon and Dôji (1760-1849) Daoist Immortals
Buddhist Priest Warding off a Demon
Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper 1764
170.3 x 124.6 (67 x 49) c. 1845 Pair of six-panel screens; ink and
Keishôji, Mie Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper color on paper
3
150 x 240 (59 x 9472) Each 163.2 x 364 (64 V 4 x 143 /s)
Illustrated page 211
Sójiji, Tokyo Private Collection, Kyoto
• In this powerful painting a child Illustrated page 37 • The subject of Daoist immortals,
representing the Buddha in a previous beings who had discovered the secret
incarnation (dóji) is shown in an • The subject of this large painting is
228 encounter with a ferocious demon, a Buddhist priest practicing austeri- of long life, was a popular one in
mid-Edo Japan at a time of particular
Indara. The child has removed his ties in the face of formidable opposi- fascination with Chinese legends
upper garment and is balanced pre- tion from an enormous red demon
cariously on a tree limb above the who holds a sword and a rope. A terri- and literature. A number of paintings
on this theme provided models
menacing but perhaps somewhat fied dog wrapped around a fungus- for Japanese artists. These included
awed demon. This rare subject, taken studded tree yelps at the fearsome
scenes
of immortals flying over the
from an early apocryphal source out- apparition. Stars glitter against a lac- oceans, riding flying carp, practicing
side the Buddhist canon, clearly quer black sky; bush clover and other austerities, and performing miracu-
appealed to the painter's interest in autumn plants denote the season.
unusual subject matter. One of the The priest has been identified in lous acts.
great eccentrics of Edo-period paint- previous publications as Kükai, also Even among the many bizarre works
ing, Soga Shóhaku gives his vivid from Shohaku's productive career,
known as Kobo Daishi (774-835), one
imagination full rein in this startling of the giants of Japanese religious this painting is shocking in its inten-
vision. There is an erotic charge to the and cultural history, though there sity and eccentricity. Exceedingly
painting, which makes it difficult to is no mention in his hagiography of precise, even obsessive attention is
imagine its being used in any didactic an incident like that depicted here. paid to the facial expression, costume,
way by a priest for the edification of After returning from religious studies and attributes of each immortal, run-
believers. ning the gamut from fierce through
in China in the early part of the Heian
The brilliance of the contrasting pri- period (794-1185), he founded the maniacal to weirdly vapid. The star-
immortals'
tlingly bright colors of the
mary colors only emphasizes the Shingon sect of Japanese Esoteric costumes are made even stronger
bizarre nature of the scene. Perhaps Buddhism and began the construc- by contrast with the largely ink land-
the finest of Shohaku's colored paint- tion of a monastic center on Mount scape setting in which the figures are
ings, this work skillfully combines Kóya that grew into one of the great deployed. The figures appear at first
areas of broad color with Shohaku's monastery complexes of Japan.
glance to interact, but they rarely do.
characteristic ink brushwork. The Hokusai was a student of Nichiren- The centripetal forces surrounding
color is applied in shaded washes sect teachings; it is possible that the fearful dragon, the oddly faceted
more typical of ink painting; in the priest depicted here is Nichiren stone outcroppings, the perfectly
Shohaku's oeuvre ink painting is by (1222 -1282), not Kükai. regular curling wave, all these elements
far the dominant mode. White pig- Originally mounted as a framed panel and more contribute to a painting
ment sprinkled over the picture's and meant to be hung under the that once seen is never forgotten.
surface suggests snow. RTS
eaves of a temple, this painting was
In the two lengthy inscriptions
remounted early in this century as a Shóhaku states his age (thirty-five)
hanging scroll. It is unsigned; the and his claim that he is the tenth-
attribution is based on a nearly iden-
generation descendant of Soga Jasoku
tical composition in the Freer Gallery (d. 1484), one of the greatest painters
of Art, Washington, D.C. There is yet of the Muromachi period. RTS
another version in the Edoardo
Chissone Museum of Oriental Art,
Genoa. RTS

119 (detail)