Artworks

Ippen Hijiri-e (Pictures of the Holy Man Ippen)

Artwork · En'i · 1299 · emakimono · Kankikō-ji Temple

Twelve scrolls on the life and travels of Ippen (1239–1289), founder of the Ji school, who wandered Japan spreading the nenbutsu and the ecstatic dancing nenbutsu (nenbutsu odori). The text was composed in 1299 by his younger brother Shōkai; the illustrations are by En'i, perhaps a monk-painter or a professional. Accurate views of well-known places make it a valuable historical document, and Eni gives it a lyric quality: Ippen and his followers crossing the snow-covered fields of the Kantō in soft browns and greens, and the throng gathered in two pavilions for a dancing nenbutsu. 1 Mason 2005, pp. 203–205, figs. 236–237. ↩ Literatur Mason 2005: Penelope E. Mason, History of Japanese Art, 2nd, Pearson Education LTD. 2005.