Page 320 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

single reed), or in a narrative context, the Besides these "deities," Zen imagery included
Daruma type was distinctive. His robe was usu- disciples of the Buddha, whether his contem-
ally draped so as to cover the head, revealing poraries or later devotees. These rakan (S:
only the rotund, masklike face. The eyes, large arhat; C: luohari) were especially popular in
and intent in early images from China, became China, where they were seen as Chan Buddhist
huge and glaring in Japanese versions. In the counterparts to the venerable and traditional
bushy-bearded face, the mouth was usually Daoist and Confucian sages. The Chinese prac-
stern, even grimacing, and the hairy chest was tice of representing luohan as gnarled ancients,
usually exposed. This is no exquisite heavenly closely related to the old trees (cat. 312) and
being; one's initial impression is of piercing convoluted rocks beloved of the literati, dates at
intensity coupled with great size and almost least from the tenth century, as attested by the
animal power. The insistent earthiness of the sixteen luohan panels now in the Imperial col-
image is a pure Zen conception, but something lection in Tokyo. These fascinating grotesques
of Daruma's exotic appearance is due to his leg- were balanced by somewhat more average
endary Indian origin. monkish types —thin, fat, young, old, light, or
Daruma left India for a politically divided dark. But all luohan paintings, whether they
China, arriving first at present-day Nanjing, depicted a single disciple (rarely), the classic
capital of the Liang kingdom, whose ruler —a complement of sixteen (often), or a monastery-
conventional "good" Buddhist —failed utterly full of five hundred (sometimes), required con-
to understand his curt and cryptic guest. There- siderable imagination and technical skill and a
upon Daruma journeyed north to the Wei king- nice balance of realism and caricature to keep
dom, his miraculous crossing of the Yangzi the luohan theme and its variations from
balanced on a single reed furnishing Zen paint- being boring.
ing with one of its most popular subjects. In Professional paintings of the Ten Courts of
Wei he performed the nine-years meditation Hell scenes (cat. 212) demonstrated a full reper-
before the cave wall, during which he was tory of distortions and creative ugliness. Their
sought out by his successor, the Chinese Hui-Ke prototypes were the Chinese versions produced fig. 3. Sesshu Toyo (1420-1506). Daruma and Eka.
(J: Eka), who cut off his own arm to prove to by the workshops of Ningbo and directly Dated to 1496. Japanese. Hanging scroll; ink and
Daruma his steadfast resolve to seek Enlighten- exported in large numbers to supply the rising color on paper. Sainen-ji, Aichi Prefecture, Japan
ment. These two awesome acts of single- Japanese demand from Zen monasteries in
minded determination — Daruma's nine-year Kyoto and Kamakura. Many sets of Chinese
meditation and Hui-Ke's self-amputation — are origin are listed as still extant in Japanese the Lamp (J: Keitoku Dentoroku, a Chinese
shown together in Sesshu's great painting. The temple collections. These in turn were copied by Chan text of 1004). The Three Laughers also
subject is certainly Chinese in origin, and prob- Japanese professional Buddhist painters (e- appeared in two other guises, as The Men of
ably Sesshu found his starting point in an anon- busshi), and occasionally by the Tosa masters Three Creeds Tasting Vinegar, and as Patriarchs
ymous Southern Song (1127-1279) work. patronized by the court. But as monochrome of the Three Creeds-, their common theme is the
Daruma's burly form and fierce expression may ink painting became increasingly the medium of essential unity or complementarity of Bud-
remind some of the extroverted "terrible Zen art, the rakan became far less popular sub- dhism, Confucianism, and Daoism. Philosophi-
aspect" deities and divine guardians of earlier jects than Daruma, Hotei, the Zen patriarchs, cally, this "Unity of the Three Creeds" could be
Esoteric Buddhism, but the resemblance is Kanzan and Jittoku (C: Hanshan and Shide, more thoroughly expounded in literary texts,
largely coincidental. The expansive, even vulgar archetypes of Enlightened laymen) and other, but the pictorial versions, especially of Tiger
humanity of Daruma is a new creation of Chan more specifically Zen, figures. Valley, allowed artists to explore the permuta-
and Zen Buddhism. Exemplary Zen tales or historically signifi- tions of figures in a landscape.
An equal favorite with Zen painters, related cant Zen events were also staple subjects of the Two works (cat. 222-223) from six sliding
to Daruma in appearance and sometimes dis- new monochrome ink painting (zenki zu, lit- screens painted by Kano Motonobu for the
played with him as part of a triptych, is Hotei erally, "pictures of Zen activities," in fact refer- abbot's residence (hojo) at the Daisen-in of
(C: Budai). He was more often shown alone on ring to Zen didactic paintings). The great Daitoku-ji are among the earliest zenki zu illus-
a single hanging scroll, short, obese, and jolly, Daruma painting by Sesshu mentioned above, trating episodes from The Record of the Trans-
always with a big sack containing his belong- though dominated by the First Patriarch, is mission of the Lamp. The flight of the Sixth
ings, a satirical and vulgar figure. By the more technically a zenki zu, the story of the persever- Patriarch (cat. 222), a bold, split composition,
serious-minded he was considered a manifesta- ance of Eka. Still other narrative subjects concentrates one's attention on the narrative
tion of the bodhisattva Maitreya, but his popu- became increasingly popular in the fifteenth rather than the landscape. Below, E'no (C: Hui-
lar appeal is summed up in his Chinese name: and sixteenth centuries: The Three Laughers of Neng, 638-713) is shown in the prow of the
Budai is a homonym for "Round Belly" or Tiger Valley, Sakyamuni Descending the boat propelled by a standing boatman; above,
"Cloth Bag." The audience for kyogen satirical Mountain After Austerities', The Ten Ox-Herd- disciples of the Fifth Patriarch, Gunin (C:
performances and otogi-zoshi (cat. 219) narra- ing Songs, a Zen parable of the quest for Hong-Ren, 601-674), search for E'no on learn-
tive scrolls must have understood Hotei very Enlightenment in ten scenes of an ox-herd ing that he has just received the patriarch's robe,
well. Numerous other eccentrics, mostly of searching for and finding his strayed ox; and i.e., has been made Sixth Patriarch. The second
Chinese origin, were included in the Zen painters' incidents from biographies of the Zen patriarchs painting (cat. 223) is even more concentrated,
repertory, though they hardly qualify as icons. as compiled in Record of the Transmission of offering a single action in a near landscape view

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