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Lot Essay
The following essay describing the Utterberg painting is by Yukio Lippit, Jeffrey T. Chambers and Andrea Okamura Professor of History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University. First published in the Japan Society catalogue Awakenings: Zen Figure Painting in Medieval Japan in 2007, it is republished here with permission of the author and of Japan Society, Inc., New York:
The theme Tenjin Visiting China is one of the most complex and revealing subjects in the Chan/Zen figural canon. Tenjin, an indigenous Japanese kami (sacred spirit), was imagined by medieval Japanese communities to have visited the Chinese Chan master Wuzhun Shifan (1177–1249), becoming the recipient of his authentic dharma transmission. The painting Tenjin Visiting China seen here is one of many dozens of examples that depict the deity in accordance with this popular legend. Usually depicted against a blank background, Tenjin is dressed in Daoist robes, with his hands folded together and a flowering plum branch in his arms; a Chinese scholar’s headgear and a shoulder bag complete the ensemble. The plum branch refers to a famous episode in Tenjin’s legendary biography, while the bag is understood to hold the mantle (kesa) that the deity received from Wuhzun as a symbol of his dharma transmission.
This iconography, which is found in the overwhelming majority of Tenjin Visiting China paintings, exhibits occasional variations. In Japan, professional painters of the Kano school tended to depict Tenjin with a slightly curving posture, his arms folded to one side; and monk-painters of the northeastern Kanto region (near present-day Tokyo) often portrayed the deity standing in three-quarter view, leaning slightly forward as if bowing. Professional Chinese painters of the Ningbo region, who produced examples of the paintings for members of Japanese diplomatic and trade missions, depicted Tenjin according to contemporary norms of Chinese portraiture, with sartorial additions such as ornate footwear and a long white sash; and in at least one example, Tenjin wears his kesa instead of keeping it in his bag. The most significant variation, however, is found in the version illustrated here: in a circular frame above Tenjin’s head, the eleven-headed form of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (C: Guanyin; J: Kannon) appears, seated in the lotus position. This painting is the only known example of this particular iconographic configuration.
Eleven-headed Avalokiteshvara (J: Juichimen Kannon) represents one of many manifestations of the bodhisattva, and signifies here the “original” Buddhist counterpart (honjibutsu) of a local Japanese divinity (suijaku). By the late twelfth century, many Japanese kami had been linked to specific Buddhist deities in order to form a cohesive system of correspondences between the divinities of the two pantheons. In principle, Japanese kami were unrepresentable, and had to be depicted in the guise of an assumed figure, such as a courtier or even a Buddhist deity. In the former case, the kami were often accompanied by figural depictions of their eternal Buddhist manifestations, which were typically painted in roundels above, as in Tenjin Visiting China. Such dual depictions are rare in Tenjin paintings. Examples include works in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the monastery Toji (of the Shingon school) in Kyoto, both of which depict Tenjin as a seated Japanese courtier, accompanied above by Eleven-Headed Avalokiteshvara. Another example in the shrine Osaka Tenmangu depicts the Sanskrit “seed syllable” that symbolizes the bodhisattva above Tenjin. In addition, a late-fifteenth-century painting of Tenjin Visiting China includes a depiction of Eleven-Headed Avalokiteshvara as a small deity (kebutsu) in Tenjin’s headgear. The present version, however, is unique among extant works in portraying Tenjin as visualized in the Zen context accompanied by the bodhisattva in its roundel frame.
The accompanying inscription follows the normal pattern of Zen commentary on this subject by describing the appearance of Tenjin and the legend surrounding his visit to China. After then casting suspicion on the plausibility of Tenjin’s continental sojourn, it attributes the unlikely dharma transmission to his miraculous powers. The inscription, dated the twelfth month of 1430, is signed by the monk Yoka Shinko (d. 1437) for a certain Nan’un Shinto, a fellow monk affiliated with the monastery Tofukuji. Close examination of Tenjin Visiting China reveals that the sections that bear the inscription, Eleven-Headed Avalokiteshvara, and Tenjin are all separate sheets of paper. The age and state of preservation of the sheets are indistinguishable, as is the painting style used for Tenjin and his Buddhist counterpart.; the inscription, furthermore, appears to acknowledge the presence of Eleven-Headed Avalokiteshvara in the work. Therefore, there is ample reason to believe that all sections were originally part of the same painting.
Little is known about Yoka Shinko, other than the fact that he was appointed abbot of Tofukuji in 1428. Stylistically, Tenjin Visiting China closely accords with some dozen extant works inscribed by monks affiliated with Tofukuji, suggesting that these works were produced by semi-professional monk-painters based at the monastery. These monastic artisans would have been followers of Kichizan Mincho (1532–1431), believed to have been the painter most responsible for establishing the basic template and formal characteristics of pictorial representations of Tenjin Visiting China.
(Reprinted from Awakenings: Zen Figure Painting in Medieval Japan, courtesy of Japan Society, Inc.)
The theme Tenjin Visiting China is one of the most complex and revealing subjects in the Chan/Zen figural canon. Tenjin, an indigenous Japanese kami (sacred spirit), was imagined by medieval Japanese communities to have visited the Chinese Chan master Wuzhun Shifan (1177–1249), becoming the recipient of his authentic dharma transmission. The painting Tenjin Visiting China seen here is one of many dozens of examples that depict the deity in accordance with this popular legend. Usually depicted against a blank background, Tenjin is dressed in Daoist robes, with his hands folded together and a flowering plum branch in his arms; a Chinese scholar’s headgear and a shoulder bag complete the ensemble. The plum branch refers to a famous episode in Tenjin’s legendary biography, while the bag is understood to hold the mantle (kesa) that the deity received from Wuhzun as a symbol of his dharma transmission.
This iconography, which is found in the overwhelming majority of Tenjin Visiting China paintings, exhibits occasional variations. In Japan, professional painters of the Kano school tended to depict Tenjin with a slightly curving posture, his arms folded to one side; and monk-painters of the northeastern Kanto region (near present-day Tokyo) often portrayed the deity standing in three-quarter view, leaning slightly forward as if bowing. Professional Chinese painters of the Ningbo region, who produced examples of the paintings for members of Japanese diplomatic and trade missions, depicted Tenjin according to contemporary norms of Chinese portraiture, with sartorial additions such as ornate footwear and a long white sash; and in at least one example, Tenjin wears his kesa instead of keeping it in his bag. The most significant variation, however, is found in the version illustrated here: in a circular frame above Tenjin’s head, the eleven-headed form of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (C: Guanyin; J: Kannon) appears, seated in the lotus position. This painting is the only known example of this particular iconographic configuration.
Eleven-headed Avalokiteshvara (J: Juichimen Kannon) represents one of many manifestations of the bodhisattva, and signifies here the “original” Buddhist counterpart (honjibutsu) of a local Japanese divinity (suijaku). By the late twelfth century, many Japanese kami had been linked to specific Buddhist deities in order to form a cohesive system of correspondences between the divinities of the two pantheons. In principle, Japanese kami were unrepresentable, and had to be depicted in the guise of an assumed figure, such as a courtier or even a Buddhist deity. In the former case, the kami were often accompanied by figural depictions of their eternal Buddhist manifestations, which were typically painted in roundels above, as in Tenjin Visiting China. Such dual depictions are rare in Tenjin paintings. Examples include works in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the monastery Toji (of the Shingon school) in Kyoto, both of which depict Tenjin as a seated Japanese courtier, accompanied above by Eleven-Headed Avalokiteshvara. Another example in the shrine Osaka Tenmangu depicts the Sanskrit “seed syllable” that symbolizes the bodhisattva above Tenjin. In addition, a late-fifteenth-century painting of Tenjin Visiting China includes a depiction of Eleven-Headed Avalokiteshvara as a small deity (kebutsu) in Tenjin’s headgear. The present version, however, is unique among extant works in portraying Tenjin as visualized in the Zen context accompanied by the bodhisattva in its roundel frame.
The accompanying inscription follows the normal pattern of Zen commentary on this subject by describing the appearance of Tenjin and the legend surrounding his visit to China. After then casting suspicion on the plausibility of Tenjin’s continental sojourn, it attributes the unlikely dharma transmission to his miraculous powers. The inscription, dated the twelfth month of 1430, is signed by the monk Yoka Shinko (d. 1437) for a certain Nan’un Shinto, a fellow monk affiliated with the monastery Tofukuji. Close examination of Tenjin Visiting China reveals that the sections that bear the inscription, Eleven-Headed Avalokiteshvara, and Tenjin are all separate sheets of paper. The age and state of preservation of the sheets are indistinguishable, as is the painting style used for Tenjin and his Buddhist counterpart.; the inscription, furthermore, appears to acknowledge the presence of Eleven-Headed Avalokiteshvara in the work. Therefore, there is ample reason to believe that all sections were originally part of the same painting.
Little is known about Yoka Shinko, other than the fact that he was appointed abbot of Tofukuji in 1428. Stylistically, Tenjin Visiting China closely accords with some dozen extant works inscribed by monks affiliated with Tofukuji, suggesting that these works were produced by semi-professional monk-painters based at the monastery. These monastic artisans would have been followers of Kichizan Mincho (1532–1431), believed to have been the painter most responsible for establishing the basic template and formal characteristics of pictorial representations of Tenjin Visiting China.
(Reprinted from Awakenings: Zen Figure Painting in Medieval Japan, courtesy of Japan Society, Inc.)