Page 371 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

Shinko-O, lord of the first memorial day, 21 3 Land) in return for fervent repetitions of the
observes the forlorn figure on horseback, dressed nembutsu ("Homage to Amida Buddha," Namu
as a Chinese scholar, crossing a bridge to the TEN REALMS OF REINCARNATION Amidabutsu). Its doctrinal and structural ante-
entrance of the netherworld. Awaiting him is ( JIKKAI Zu) cedents were Chinese, but it was in twelfth-
the monstrous hag Datsueba who strips all new- century Japan, impelled and guided by the monk
i$th century
comers, hanging their garments on the sinister Japanese Honen (1133-1212), that Pure Land Buddhism
tree to her left. Unfortunates are tossed into the pair of six-fold screens; color, gold and silver foil, entered its period of greatest growth, becoming
churning waters to fend against demons. A pas- and metallic powder on paper foremost among the rapidly proliferating populist
sage in the Hokke Gengi (C: Fahua Xuanyi, the each 142.2 x 295.0 (56 x iiSVs) sects. Its iconography was pragmatic and forceful,
commentary on the Lotus Sutra by the monk contrasting splendid visions of the Western Para-
Zhi-Yi [538-597]), describes such a scene. Presid- Okuno-in, Taima-dera, Nara dise and the mediational activities of compassion-
ing above this dismal passage is the deity Fudo ate bodhisattvas with gruesome descriptions of
Myo-6, chief of the fierce Wisdom Kings, whose These screens are said to depict the Ten Realms retributive sufferings.
attributes of sword and rope respectively slashed of Reincarnation of the Buddhist cosmology. These screens suggest an amalgamation of
through the toils of ignorance and bound evil The Ten Realms are equivalent to the Six Realms imagery from two particularly expressive periods
(or, alternatively, pulled the seeker toward of Existence (Rokudo, comprising the realms of Pure Land iconography. The mandala painting
Enlightenment). of hell, hungry ghosts, animals, bellicose demons, at the extreme left of the left-hand screen is a
Emma-O, lord of the fifth memorial day, pre- humans, and divinities), with the highest, or depiction of the Taima Mandara (mandala), per-
sides over a demonstration of evidence. Held by divine realm, subdivided into five grades, the haps the most famous and influential of the West-
an implacable demon, the evil-doer sees himself, highest being the realm of Buddhas. Buddhist ern Paradise icons. The original eighth-century
in the great bronze mirror, committing the act religious speculation and doctrine has developed work presented a geometrically composed and
of murderous piracy for which he will be con- from the fundamental understanding of sentient splendidly ordered paradise — Buddhism translat-
demned. Other sinners await their turn before the beings as bound to a cycle of birth and death by ing Tang Chinese social ideals into an iconography
incriminating mirror. Above, in marked contrast ignorance and desire. By "right understanding" of heaven. In contrast to this beatific and stately
to this scene of terrible revelation and grim jus- and the stilling of "attachment" (craving), upward image, the right-hand screen depicts the courts
tice, is the benign image of Jizo Bosatsu (bodhi- transmigration was held possible, its ultimate of hell and the vicissitudes of existence in the
sattva), suggesting the ever-present possibility of goal being Enlightenment and liberation from the Rokudo (Six Realms). This type of image owes
compassionate intercession. karmic cycle, or Nirvana. The various schools, or much to the writings of the reformer-monk Gen-
Mitsunobu imparts energy and vitality to this sects, of Buddhism offered soteriologies ranging shin (942-1017). Genshin's singularly influential
series of traditional icons. Possibly the lively from complex gnosticism to release attained by treatise Ojo Ydshu (985) contained vivid descrip-
drama in each of the ten scenes appealed to the sudden insight or through the repetition of a tions of hell and of the sufferings in the various
artist's narrative interests. By contrast, in many simple prayer formula. Their iconography was realms. The iconography, which was inspired by
statically posed icons made about this time, the correspondingly varied. Genshin's vision, also expressed the social and
earlier sense of regal power had given way to The Pure Land (Amidist, or Jodo) sect offered political turbulence of the Kamakura (1185-1333)
mere stiffness. j.u. rebirth in Amida's Western Paradise (the Pure and early Muromachi (1333-1573) periods. Suf-

370 CIRCA 1492