Shaka (Shakyamuni), the Historical Buddha, with Two Attendant Bodhisattvas and Sixteen Arhats

This hanging scroll focuses on the triad of Shaka and two bosatsu, Fugen (Skt: Samantabhadra) on an elephant and Monju (Manjushri) on a lion. Below the triad are the Sixteen Rakan (Skt: arhat; Ch: luohan), advanced disciples of the Buddha. The theme of the picture can be interpreted as a gathering of devotees around the Buddha, who is shown preaching at Vulture Peak, which rises in the background among swirling clouds. As depicted here, this famous site in northern India appears to be a variant on literal renderings of the landscape in which the peak is given the form of a bird's head, its perceived shape and hence the source of its name.[1] An unusual feature is the inclusion of two additional figures at the bottom of the composition: on the left Shōtoku Taishi (574–622), prince regent during the reign of the empress Suiko (r. 593–628), and on the right the monk Kūkai (774–835), the founder of Shingon Buddhism.

Many early Buddhist figure paintings have traditionally been attributed to painters of the Takuma school of e-busshi (artists who specialized in Buddhist painting), who were active in Kyoto and Kamakura in the Late Heian and Kamakura periods. Takuma artists were noted for incorporating Song and Yuan styles into their work. Landscape elements in this painting, such as the precipitous rocks delineated in texture strokes and the use of modulating lines for the robes of the rakan, reflect some of the features that Japanese artists absorbed from Chinese ink paintings brought to Japan by Zen monks as early as the thirteenth century. The connection between Takuma artists and Zen temples is further substantiated by the inscriptions of Zen monks on paintings attributed to the Takuma school.[2] Although it is not possible to ascribe the Burke painting definitively to a Takama artist, the style suggests that it was influenced by trends that developed in the Takuma school and that it was made in the fourteenth century.

The individualized representation of the aged disciples reflects a tradition of rakan figure painting associated with the Northern Song master Li Gonglin (fl. ca. 1041–1106). In following this tradition, the painter delighted in rendering the facial expressions of the rakan and in creating lively representations of the various creatures—tigers, geese, monkeys, dragons—that often accompany them. The ethereal beauty of Fugen and Monju, the bodhisattvas of universal virtue and wisdom, respectively, and of the fully enlightened Buddha is rendered with the refined elegance of Late Heian Buddhist paintings. These three figures provide a contrast with the worldly appearance of the rakan. An unusual feature is the depiction of Shakyamuni holding a begging bowl—an attribute symbolic of his life as a mendicant—in lieu of displaying a mudra.

The inclusion of Shōtoku Taishi and Kūkai has been interpreted as reflecting in part the beliefs of the monk Eizon (1201–1290), who founded the Shingon Ritsu sect of Buddhism and established a center at Saidaiji, near Nara.[3] Eizon combined the doctrines of Shingon, which emphasized the use of mandalas, mudras, and mantras to achieve spiritual awareness, with the beliefs of the eighth-century Nara Ritsu sect, which focused on the importance of vinaya (J: ritsu ), the rules and regulations for the clergy. The vinaya reform that Eizon advocated was a method by which a practitioner could defeat the effects of mappō (the decline of Buddhist Law) which Buddhists believed would plague the world until the appearance of Maitreya, the Buddha of the Future-and attain enlightenment. In the context of Shingon Ritsu doctrine, rakan, who are often identified as symbolizing the pursuit of individual enlightenment, may have epitomized the ideals of vinaya as monks who adhered to monastic discipline.

During the Kamakura period, there was a revival of the ancient Nara sects of Buddhism in reaction to the widely popular Pure Land sect, which centered on devotion to the Amida Buddha. Associated with Eizon's Shingon Ritsu sect was the belief that the historical Buddha Shakyamuni, as the founder of Buddhism, was the primary symbol of the return to the "ancient way" of Nara Buddhism.[4] During the Kamakura period, a major cult of worship developed in Nara that focused on Prince Shōtoku, whose followers regarded him as a reincarnation of Shaka. Eizon related his own injunctions against hunting and fishing (taking life in any form is forbidden in Buddhist doctrine) to his faith in Shōtoku, who had propagated the same ideals of behavior.[5] The detail of fish swimming upstream, which appears in the lower left corner of the Burke painting, may allude to these teachings.

The expansion of the Taishi cult resulted in the production of many portraits of Shōtoku as prince regent. And the portrait of Kūkai here probably reflects the belief that he was a reincarnation of the prince.[6] The complex iconography of this painting would thus appear to refer simultaneously to the fundamental teachings of Eizon, the belief in Shakya, and the cult of Shōtoku Taishi.
GWN

[Miyeko Murase 2000, Bridge of Dreams]

[1] A fourteenth-century painting of a Shaka triad and the Sixteen Rakan at Tōdaiji, Nara, shares compositional affinities with the Burke scroll; see Donohashi Akiho 1977, p. 58.
[2] Hirata Yutaka 1985, p. 15.
[3] Miyama Susumu 1988, p. 325.
[4] D. Matsunaga and A. Matsunaga 1974-76, vol. 2, p. 269.
[5] Ibid., p. 272.
[6] Ishida Mosaku 1976, vol. 1, p. 10.

[ Leighton R. Longhi Inc. , New York, 1988; sold to Burke]; Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation , New York ( (1988–2015; donated to MMA)

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Tsuji Nobuo 辻惟雄, Mary Griggs Burke, Nihon Keizai Shinbunsha 日本経済新聞社, and Gifu-ken Bijutsukan 岐阜県美術館. Nyūyōku Bāku korekushon-ten: Nihon no bi sanzennen no kagayaki ニューヨーク・バーク・コレクション展 : 日本の美三千年の輝き(Enduring legacy of Japanese art: The Mary Griggs Burke collection). Exh. cat. [Tokyo]: Nihon Keizai Shinbunsha, 2005, cat. no. 29.

Murase, Miyeko, Il Kim, Shi-yee Liu, Gratia Williams Nakahashi, Stephanie Wada, Soyoung Lee, and David Sensabaugh. Art Through a Lifetime: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection. Vol. 1, Japanese Paintings, Printed Works, Calligraphy. [New York]: Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, [2013], p. 3, cat. no. 2.