Rakan

Rakan (Sanskrit: arhat) are ascetics who guard and proclaim Buddhist law on earth in the period between the death of Shakyamuni, the historical Buddha, and the coming of Maitreya, the Buddha of the Future. They have inspired some of the freest and most lively depictions of the human figure in Japanese art. Old age and the struggle for salvation have left their mark, but in the figures’ gnarled faces and bodies is a strong expression of the uniqueness of each individual.

Because rakan achieved enlightenment through rigorous individual effort and meditation, they appealed to practitioners of Zen Buddhism and became a popular icon in medieval Japan. They are conventionally portrayed in groups of sixteen, eighteen, or five hundred. This statue was one of five hundred created over the course of nearly ten years by the monk-sculptor Shōun Genkei for the Ōbaku Zen temple Gohyaku Rakanji (Temple of Five Hundred Rakan). Originally on the eastern outskirts of Edo, the temple was relocated to the Meguro district of Tokyo.