Page 369 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

M U R O M A C H I J A P A N

211 passion. The area around Nachi was interpreted
to be the site of Mt. Potalaka, the paradise of
MANIFESTATION OF Kannon, projected by Buddhist adherents of
AMIDA BUDDHA AT NACHI various Asian cultures upon various auspicious
locales.
i$th century The Amida portrayed in this painting is under-
Japanese
hanging scroll; ink, color, and gold on silk stood to be the Buddhist deity corresponding
3
84-5 ^ 39-5 (33^xi5 /s) to the indigenous (Shinto) spirit of the Kumano
hongu. The assimilation of nativist religion by
Shonen-ji, Kanagawa Prefecture Buddhism was, until the eleventh century, a rela-
tively unstructured process of mutually affecting
Although sparse in obvious narrative detail, this influences. From the eleventh century, however,
painting apparently depicts a tale well known in Buddhist theorists categorized the relationships
Kumano lore. An elderly woman from the prov- between Buddhist and indigenous gods, estab-
inces had a single pious wish: to make a pilgrim- lishing individual correspondences. Their goal was
age to Kumano before dying. Arriving at the to present the local deities as manifestations of an
Miyaoji Shrine at Hama in her seventieth year, overarching Buddhist pantheon. This was known
the old woman was rewarded by a spectacular as the honji-suijaku system: honji (Original
vision of Amida Buddha emerging in an elabo- Ground) referring to the Buddhist deities, and
rately conceived cloud formation from behind a suijaku (Manifest Trace) referring to their local-
mountain range. ized Shinto manifestations. The image seen here
The Kumano region, located in the southeast- greatly resembles a type of purely Buddhist icon
ern portion of the Kii Peninsula, is an area of dra- called yamagoshi raigo, which depicts Amida
matic topography and natural beauty to which Buddha, Kannon, and other heavenly beings
numinous qualities were ascribed from ancient coming over a range of mountains to welcome the
times. Two Shinto shrines — the shingu (Haya- soul of a recently deceased believer into paradise.
tama Shrine), located near the mouth of the This painting, however, in which the Buddhist
Kumano River as it empties into the sea, and the deity Amida is shown emanating from a specifi-
hongu (Nimasu Shrine), set farther into the cally Shinto holy place, and kneeling pilgrims
mountains, nearer the source of the same river, on the left make folded-paper offerings of a
were established during the Early Heian period kind used in Shinto ritual, is a syncretic honji-
(794-897). They imposed a degree of religious suijaku icon.
structure on a vicinity already recognized as Such combined Buddhist-Shinto icons, commis-
sacred. In the mid-Heian period Nachi, an adja- sioned by the Imperial and noble families, were
cent mountain with a magnificent waterfall, was relatively common from the Heian period (794-
incorporated with the other two sites to form 1185) on. The Japanese, blessed by a singular lack
the three-shrine system called Kumano Sanzan, of religious zealotry, readily amalgamated their
or Mi-Kumano. ancient and local Shinto with the newer, imported
Kumano was an important and popular pilgrim- doctrine —adding to Shinto's cult of purity, sim-
age destination. Indeed there were centuries of plicity, and reverence for all things in nature the An understanding of the geography of the
imperial devotion, with the journeys of successive complex metaphysics and compassion empha- Kumano shrines and the narrative mentioned
royal entourages from Kyoto recorded in paint- sized in Buddhism. Both were in a real sense the above suggests that the perspective presented in
ings and in poetic travel diaries. This imperial national religions of Japan. They also corre- this painting is a view from the southeast to the
patronage and interest, along with its privileged sponded to the two strongest strains in Japanese northwest. In other words, from the coastal area
assumption into court literature and visual art, culture, the Chinese tradition of rationality and to the mountains. A painting in the collection of
afforded the pilgrimage route to Kumano an formal symmetry and the native tradition of Dan O H6rin-ji in Kyoto offers an earlier (1329)
almost prototypical status among the possible intuition, naturalness, and simplicity. The Impe- version of such a composition but with informa-
forms of Japanese religious journey. In addition, rial family, practicing Buddhists since at least tive variations. The earlier painting depicts a
Kumano was a prominent training place for the seventh century, were also descendants of similar valley or vortex of inward-sloping moun-
mountain ascetics (yamabushi) of the syncretic Amaterasu, Shinto Sun Goddess and chief deity, tains and the ascending Amida. The astounded
Shinto-Buddhist Shugendo sect. Not only a desti- and ministers of her Grand Shrine at Ise, which pilgrims, however, appear only on the right of the
nation, Kumano was the starting point on a pil- was Shinto's holy of holies. Neither the emperors painting, together with the architectural elements
grimage route of thirty-three temples in central nor the nobles found any contradiction in simul- of a small Shinto shrine. By comparison, the
Japan dedicated to Kannon, Bodhisattra of Com- taneous patronage of both doctrines. Shonen-ji painting seen here has supplicant fig-

368 CIRCA 1492