Page 236 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

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Hakuin Ekaku (1685 -1768)
Daruma (Bodhidharmo)
Hanging scroll; ink on paper
7
134.2 x 91.8 (52 /8 x 36 Vs)
Seikenji, Shizuoka

• The most commonly painted sub-
ject in Zenga, or "Zen pictures," is
Daruma, the first patriarch of Chinese
Chan Buddhism (Japanese: Zen).
Whether Daruma actually existed is a
235
matter of some controversy; he is said
to have been an Indian sage who
transmitted the unwritten methods of
a meditation-based teaching lineage
to China in the seventh century. Of
the many stories concerning Daruma,
the best known is of his nine years of
intense meditation at the Shaolin
Temple in China. Portraits of Daruma
exist from the eleventh century; as
here, they typically portray his fierce
determination by means of a trucu-
lent expression and unyielding gaze.
In this example the Zen master and
painter Hakuin Ekaku emphasizes
Daruma's Indian origins by depicting
him with a bearded face, prominent
nose, and earrings. Although the por-
trait contains some quickly brushed
elements, such as the ear and squig-
gly eyebrows, the drawing of the facial
hair and the inked-in background
reveal this as a carefully thought out
portrait based on a long tradition of
formal depictions of this most impor-
tant of Zen masters.

The inscription reads "Pointing
directly to the mind: see your own Zen that by rigorous meditation one
nature and become Buddha!" Hakuin discovers one's true nature as a Bud-
wrote this colophon, from a longer dha; that is, that every sentient being
verse attributed to Daruma, on many has Buddha-nature. The lines also
of his portraits of the patriarch. The refer to the unwritten doctrine of Zen
two lines preceding the phrase on this as a practice transmitted from one
painting are "A transmission outside mind to the other through the ages,
the scriptures, without words or let- outside the strictures of the written
ters." It is a fundamental teaching of word. The compound kenshô, trans-
lated here as "see your own nature,"
is a favored synonym for satori or
"enlightenment." RTS