Artworks

Hachiman in the Guise of a Monk, Tōdaiji

Artwork · Kaikei · 1201 · sculpture · Tōdai-ji Temple

Made by Kaikei in 1201 on commission from Chōgen for the newly rebuilt Hachiman Shrine of Tōdaiji. Chōgen had wanted to install a painting of Hachiman owned by Jingoji, then in the hands of Go-Toba, but Jingoji’s restorer Mongaku won it back; Kaikei’s “second-choice” image is thought to follow that painting. The god sits cross-legged on a lotus with a monk’s staff (shakujō) with six rings; the idealized face of a divinity, the colours added in fifty days by the painter Kōen. Kaikei, adopted by Kōkei and a follower of Pure Land Buddhism under the name Anamidabutsu, gave his name to the gentle “anami” style. 1 Mason 2005, pp. 191–192, fig. 222. ↩ Literatur Mason 2005: Penelope E. Mason, History of Japanese Art, 2nd, Pearson Education LTD. 2005.