Page 346 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

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the paths through Buddhist temples, to have their own personalities. Yet
a world to which Jakuchü turned late in their ghostly quiet they also recall
in his life. And Jakuchü seems to have the sense of imminent death in Jaku-
favored monochrome in his paintings chü's paintings of withered lotuses
of Buddhist subjects, such as the and a skull and bones, both of which
Vegetable parinirvana (cat. 121). That he painted after the Great Tenmei
work as well as the rough-hewn stone Fire devastated Kyoto in 1788.
Buddhas that Jakuchü designed for This pair of screens recently resur-
Sekihôji, the temple near which he faced after having been lost since
retired, may provide a clue to the
meaning of this painting of lanterns. Wo rid War II. MM
As with both of the other subjects, the
painter here has endowed the lan-
terns with an almost human expres-
sion. Each is individualized—given
its own "face" in effect. With different
shapes and sizes, the lanterns seem