A Medieval Japanese Painting of the Twelfth Century

A Medieval Japanese Painting of the Twelfth CenturyAuthor(s): Basil GraySource: The British Museum Quarterly, Vol. 32, No. 3/4 (Spring, 1968), pp. 123-125Published by: British MuseumStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4423003 .

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A MEDIEVAL JAPANESE PAINTING OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY

T has long been the hope that the Museum might be able to add to its exten- sive collection of Japanese painting some work which might worthily represent the great and classic age of Heian (8 i0o-I1i85). In the winter

exhibition of Japanese painting, sculpture, and lacquer there is included a major work of this period depicting Fuku Kenzaku Kannon with two Guardians (P1. XLI), which has lately been acquired by the Trustees out of the fund bequeathed by Mr. P. T. Brooke-Sewell. This is undoubtedly one of the most important paintings to have left Japan since the close of the Second World War and the equal of anything which has gone to the United States during this period. It has long been well known in Japan, having indeed been reproduced in I909 in the first volume of the Toyo Bijutsu Taikan, of which the English edition published at the same time entitled Masterpieces selected from the Fine Arts of the Far East has been for two generations a first introduction to the subject for many people. At that time this painting, which belonged to Baron Masuda, was attributed to the tenth century; a fact which can easily be explained, for it is painted in the style of the early Fujiwara period.

The two Guardian figures especially are in the rich colouring and plastic form emphasized by strong line which closely echoes the style of Chinese Buddhist painting under the T'ang Dynasty (6 I 8-906). This can be demonstrated convin- cingly by comparing the right-hand Guardian (Pl. xLII) with some of the banner paintings from Tun-huang in the Stein collection. For instance, the Vajrapani (B.M. Stein, no. I34; Ch. Iv. oo 1 8) shows a treatment of the head, including hair- dressing, moustache, and whiskers, strikingly parallel with the Heian Guardian. On a banner painting of Virupaksha, Guardian of the West in the Stein collection in New Delhi (Serindia, pl. LxxxIv; Ch. Iv. 0046), the costume, armour, sash, legging, and boots are all close to those of our guardian. Indeed, all the features of this figure can be paralleled in the Stein banner paintings from Tun-huang, datable to the ninth or early tenth century, except for the military cloak tied round his shoulders. This also, however, is typical of the ninth or early tenth century and is not found in later figures in Japan. There is now preserved in a private collection in Japan a Heian period outline drawing of a military figure in similar pose, copied from one of six panels of doors formerly in the Tadaiji temple at Nara and apparently of Tempy6 date (729-48), but which must have perished long ago.

The left-hand Guardian (P1. XLIXI) has an even more direct relationship with a famous work of the Tempy6 period-the Shikkong6jin, kept as secret sculpture in a closed shrine in the Hokked6 at T6daiji. It there stands behind the main cult

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figure of Fuku Kenzaku Kannon, to whom this Hall was dedicated in the Tempy6 period and before A.D. 743, when it was incorporated in the newly founded T6daiji. This Kannon figure is of dry lacquer (Kanshitsu), but the Shikkong6jin is in clay, brilliantly painted. It is life-size (height 5 ft. 6 in.) and is known to have been in its present position in the Jogan era (859-76). A legend relates that Raben, the famous priest and ascetic who founded the T6daiji, carried this figure about with him and that it was enshrined by the emperor at the newly built Hokked6 in the year 733- It is, however, more probably somewhat later. It represents Vajrapani brandishing in his right hand the thunderbolt (vajra) with which he is about to attack the enemies of Buddhism. His mouth is open as he shouts his war cry and his eyes blaze with anger. The whole stance, expression, and costume of the sculpture are closely copied in the painting, even down to the position of the floating streamers and the knotted ribbon in his hair. Moreover, the painted floral designs on the armour are repeated in our painting.'

These comparisons establish a definite connection between this painting and the T6daiji, one of the most famous temples of Nara for its antiquity, size, and position. It suffered greatly during the wars of the twelfth century, most of its buildings being burnt in the winter of I I 8o.

It was in the later Heian period, when the authority of the central government was declining and the way was being prepared for the advent of feudal rule, that great damage was done to the buildings and treasures of sculpture and painting in the great monasteries of Kyoto and Nara. Usually this was due to the fierce rivalry between the monks and their lay warriors, who freely interfered in secular affairs in the capital and attacked the buildings of temples of the opposite faction. The heavy losses suffered by the temples produced, as a natural reaction, a deliberate policy of revival in the style of painting and sculpture. They sought to return to the most fervent period of Buddhist faith in Japan, early Heian of the tenth century. It is in this context that it is possible to date the painting between about I 170 and the final break with the Heian tradition, which was marked by the burning of Kyoto in 122 1.

Dr. Akiyama, the greatest living authority on Heian painting, kindly allows me to quote his opinion that our Fuku Kenzaku Kannon is to be dated between I 170 and I 8o. He had made a thorough scientific study of the kakemono in the laboratory of the Bijutsu Kenkyu in Ueno Park, Tokyo, which revealed a gold under-painting behind each of the three figures, painted on the reverse side of the silk to give depth and splendour to the pigments on the front of the silk. Where the silk has worn thin over the centuries some of this gold under-paint is now plainly visible. This remarkable technical feature has been found only in some Buddhist paintings of the Heian period. Otherwise the examination confirmed the first impression that the condition was on the whole very good and that there has been no over-painting. All three figures are provided with wide

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flame-bordered haloes, and the main figure also with a mandorla surrounding the body, thus following T'ang practice (P1. XLIV). The green pigment of these areas has rotted the silk, as is usually found where arsenic has been employed.2 It is probably the same pigment which has been responsible for the decay of the silk on which the vase held in the right hand of Kannon was painted. At this point an ugly patch has been inserted.

Fuku Kenzaku (Sanskrit Armoghapila) Kannon, with never-empty net or lasso, who catches all sentient beings and carries them to the Bodhiland, enjoyed a special cult in Japan within the Kegon sect, which was favoured by the Imperial Court in the eighth century. Its teaching emphasizes the transcendental aspect of Buddhism, according to the Kegon or Avatamsaka siitra, in which the Buddha is said to reveal himself everywhere in the world in millions of emanations, in every particle of dust. T6daiji was the principal temple of this sect. Fuku Kenzaku derives from the god Siva in his aspect of saviour of souls, and here exhibits his attributes of the third eye in the forehead and the triple face, as well as the lasso. To these are added the marks of the Bodhisattva Kannon, the Amitabha Buddha in the crown, and the lotus vase in the lower right hand. The sculpture of Fuku Kenzaku Kannon in the Hokked6 has one head, three eyes, and eight arms, whereas our painted version, which seems to be unique in this form, has only four arms. He is enthroned on a lotus seat supported on a rocky base, as is appro- priate to Kannon. The Bodhisattva is sexless but has distinctly feminine charac- teristics in feature and expression. The flesh is tinted to suggest plasticity in the convention of the Heian period, which in this continues the tradition of Buddhist painting in T'ang China. As with all early paintings, the silk is in three sections of which the central may be assumed to be the full width of the loom, measuring 48-3 centimetres. The complete width is

87"4 cm. and the height 123 cm. The

mounting dates from the Meiji period, which is probably when it was sold by a temple directly or indirectly to Baron Masuda. Since his death it has been in the Hoshino collection in northern Japan.

BASIL GRAY

I See Catalogue of Art Treasures of Ten Great Temples of Nara, vol. 17, The T6daiji Temple, pt. I (1933), for excellent views of the Hokked6 and its contents.

2 Similar damage has been caused to the

mandorla surrounding the Fugen of Heian date in the Feer Gallery, Washington: 7apanese Art in the West, edited by J. Mayuyama (Tokyo, 1967), pl. 66.

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XLI. FUKU KENZAKU KANNON, 1170-80



XLII. G UARDIAN, detail of Plate XLI



XLIII. SHIKKONGOJIN, detail of Plate XLI



XLIV. FUKU KENZAKU KANNON ON LOTUS THRONE, detail of Plate XLI



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A Medieval Japanese Painting of the Twelfth Century