Artworks

Portrait of Myōe Shōnin meditating in a tree

Artwork · attributed to Jōnin · 13th century · kakemono · Kōzan-ji Temple

Myōe (1173–1232), who refounded Kōzanji for the Kegon school, sits in meditation in the fork of a twin-trunked tree among scraggy pines, his rosary and an incense burner hanging on the branches. The composition follows Chinese rakan paintings and is almost naive; ink lines with thin washes of colour, except for the finely drawn face — a painting that prefigures the Nanga school. Traditionally attributed to Enichibō Jōnin, a monk of Kōzanji. 1 Mason 2005, pp. 196–197, fig. 228. ↩ Literatur Mason 2005: Penelope E. Mason, History of Japanese Art, 2nd, Pearson Education LTD. 2005.