Portrait of Zen master Hoshitsu Seido with his Disciple Monk Shoin
Artist
Kimura Tokuo
(Japanese, 17th century)
Date17th century
Mediumscroll painting
Dimensions99.5 x 46.4 cm (39 3/16 x 18 1/4 in.)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineBequest of Charles B. Cohn in memory of Stuart P. Anderson
Object number1985.135
Label TextThis painting belongs to a specific type of Zen Buddhist painting. Portraits of Zen masters were treasured at Zen temples more than icons or holy books for they recorded the bond between the master and his pupil, the recipient of the portrait. When a monk attained a sufficient level of religious awareness to become independent of his master, he received his teacher's portrait as a certificate of transmission of the doctrine. Zen focuses attention on the individual master as the embodiment of the Buddhist law and stresses the direct transmission of its teaching from master to student.
Kimura Tokuo, a painter recognized particularly for his portraits of Buddhist-priests, was a well-known Edo period Buddhist painter. The calligrapher Gyokushu Soban was the one hundred eighty-fifth abbot of the great Kyoto Zen temple Daitokuji. This painting follows a tradition that began in Japan in the early thirteenth century when the founder of the Soto school of Zen Buddhism brought back a portrait of his Chinese Zen master to Japan from China. The body is represented conventionally, but the faces capture the individual character of the sitter. This communication of the subject's character through the face rather than through attributes is a radical departure from the usual methods of characterization in Japanese painting. It implies the Zen belief that the character and achievement of the subject portrayed serves an essential religious function.ProvenanceCharles Cohn/Stuart Anderson, Worcester MAOn View
Not on view
Natsume Seibi
late 18th century - early 19th century
