I INTRODUCTION

A special exhibition entitled Sacred Ningbo, Gateway to 1300 Years of Japanese Buddhism (hereafter referred to as Sacred Ningbo), held in Nara National Museum, in the summer of 2009 (July 18 - August 30) was a successful and fruitful one as it attracted attention both inside and outside Japan and contributed to various disciplines by illuminating how Ningbo, a central harbor city in the East Asian maritime trade zone and a sacred place for Buddhists, played an important historical, cultural role centering around Buddhist art during the Yuan and Ming periods.1

The exhibition was particularly meaningful in that it collected in one venue all the major Buddhist paintings from the Southern Song, only a few of which had been available at one time in any previous exhibition. As the exhibition organizers did not attempt to array masterpieces or to suggest Buddhist paintings as its main theme, they excluded the paintings not directly associated with Ningbo, even famous examples such as Mahamayuri (Ninna-ji, Kyoto) from the Northern Song, the Sixteen Lohans (Seiryō-ji, Kyoto) whose transmission is traditionally attributed to Chōnen (奝然), or Avalokiteshvara with a Thousand Hands (Eihō-ji, Gifu) from the Southern Song. Nevertheless, an opportunity for achieving a broad perspective on the Southern Song Buddhist Paintings was offered through an all-encompassing range of relevant Buddhist paintings displayed in the exhibition, which also included a number of new materials, the most representative of which, on display as a set for the first time in centuries, is the series of Five Hundred Lohans in Daitoku-ji, Kyoto.

The exhibition Sacred Ningbo was highly impressive also in that it did not merely display the paintings but also paid heed to social and local history. The method of interpreting each work in relation to the networks and contexts constructed by materials, place and people has been practically pursued by Japanese researchers since 1990: this approach is in line with the “social art history” and “inter-regional studies” of the west. An exhibition reflecting the new research method does not confine each Buddhist painting within the scope of art history but extends its significance by treating it as the object of research of history itself and of other related disciplines. By associating them with the social strata of the region, with religious rituals, and with social activities, the familiar Buddhist paintings from Ningbo can be seen to embrace diverse implications, which cannot be simply defined.

The present paper purports to examine some general issues of Buddhist paintings from the Song and the Yuan rather than applying the methods allowed by social history and local history, but is nevertheless deeply rooted in the significance of the exhibition, Sacred Ningbo. It will contribute to the field of art history by providing new perspectives for illuminating an individual phenomenon with details; however, no comprehension in depth is possible without a general view. In this respect, a discussion on Buddhist paintings is no exception, and thus a discussion from a general view is indispensable in order for a proper interpretation of an individual work. I intend to explore the characteristics of the visual representation employed in the images of the devotional deities from the Song and Yuan periods.

II MATERIAL ISSUES

Recently, Nagaoka Ryūsaku, referring to Gombrich’s Meditation on a Hobby Horse, has argued that Buddha images function as the representation of Buddha, and has embarked on an examination of the representational functions of ancient Japanese Buddhist sculptures.2 In this respect, Buddhist paintings, embracing Buddha images, are no different and need to be treated the same as sculptures. If so, can we really consider that Buddhist paintings function as the representation of Buddha as much as a sculpture does? For a clue to the answer to this question, I would like to examine Nagaoka’s presupposition that sculptures are situated in the present world.

If Buddhist sculptures are situated in the present world, where is Buddha in Buddhist paintings? A Buddhist painting needs to be greatly differentiated from a sculpture, as it comprises two parts; Buddha and the surrounding spaces. Should we not discriminate how, as well as what, these parts are represented? This is because a painting both represents and provides the environment for the Buddha, while a sculpture of Buddha requires a space in the normal world around it. There are many paintings depicting Buddha moving to different realms such as the Descent of Amitabha paintings, which clearly suggest that a Buddhist painting entails representations of a different nature from that of a sculpture. A Buddhist painting is not merely a substitute for Buddha but it also represents the interrelation between the present world, “this shore (此岸),” and the transcendental world, “the other shore (彼岸),” by visualizing both Buddha and the space surrounding him.

The visual representations of Buddhist paintings from the Southern Song display somewhat intricate diversities even when stylistic and iconographical differences are exempted from the discussion. The differences and diversities are due clearly to certain relatedness between “this shore” and “the other shore” which are made apparent in the picture. One advocating the authority of scriptures will argue to refer to the scriptures for the question on the relatedness between this shore and the other shore; however, I shall in this paper regard Buddhist paintings as visual representations and analyze their narratives. This is because it is not entirely acceptable that various interpretations of the scriptures have been fully reflected in the paintings. The world of letters and the world of visualizations operate in disparate boundaries. Texts are primarily influential in the formation of images which are made visible through paintings. And therefore, a comparative examination of the visual representations in Buddhist paintings needs to be preceded by an analysis of their narratives.

If it is accepted that a religious painting represents the interrelation between “the other shore”, the world of the religious transcendence, and “this shore,” the present world, most of the Buddhist paintings from the Southern Song I have examined are to be categorized into three types: the visualized image, the apparition image and the summoned image. Although a categorization like this would be more interesting if the universal ground of religious paintings were explored through comparison with the religious paintings of the west, I shall confine my discussion here to establishing the three types and analyzing their characteristics. And noteworthy changes in the Buddhist paintings of the Yuan will also be discussed.3 A generalist may argue that the viewpoints of the visualized image and the summoned image lie in “this shore” and that of the apparition image in “the other shore”; however, as the three categories may not seem clear only viewed from the viewpoint of “this shore,” the title of each category needs to be understood as signifying its characteristics of presentation that visualize the interrelation between “this shore” and “the other shore.”

III VISUALIZED IMAGE

The visualized image (心中感得像) depicts the state that is reached by contemplating the Buddha, i.e. the visualization of the Buddha image that is formed in the mind (Figure 1). In the religious perspective, a considerable distance between the present world (this shore) and the Buddhist paradise (the other shore) is presupposed. Owing to this distance, the visualized image should indicate the visual perception of the Buddha when one meets with the Buddha after one has purified the mind and body, enhanced inward sanctity, and consequently approached the world of paradise. In this case, it does not mean that ordinary lay believers in the present world may experience this. The visualized image originates from the world experienced or inwardly perceived by a monk of the highest calibre who has renounced the world, and therefore this experience, and the formation of the image, must chronologically precede the production of a painting.

( Figure 1 ) Visualized image

The Amitabha Triad (Figure 2; Shōjōke-in, Kyoto) painted by Puyue (普悅) serves as the most representative example. Along with the strong trend of the Mind-Only (唯心) studies during the Song, the paintings started to reflect inward contemplation. Further examples can be found, outside Buddhist paintings, in the motifs of the Confucian literati paintings such as “Ranges and Valleys within one’s breast (胸中丘壑)” and “Generate Bamboos within one's breast (胸中成竹)” which show the intent to visualize images prior to the act of painting. On this basis, Mind-Only studies widely influenced art and Buddhist paintings also followed the philosophical fashion of this period. No one would disagree that Early Spring (Figure 3; National Palace Museum, Taipei) by Guo Xi (郭熙) dated in the fifth year of Xining (1072), is a fine example of this case outside Buddhist paintings. The Tiantai school had long argued the importance of contemplating the Buddha in the mind and had established a tradition somewhat similar to the Mind-Only studies, which enabled Puyue to produce an Amitabha image, which is the most representative work of the visualized image.

( Figure 2 ) Amitabha Triad, Puyue, Southern Song, late 12th century. Three hanging scrolls; color on silk, 127.0 x 48.8 cm, Shōjōke-in, Kyoto

( Figure 3 ) Early Spring, Guo Xi, Northern Song, 1072. Hanging scroll; ink on silk, 158.3 x 108.1 cm, National Palace Museum, Taipei

In the early Northern Song, when present-day Ningbo was called Mingzhou (明州), Zhili (知礼, 960-1028), based at Yanqingsi (延慶寺), retrieved the former prosperity of the Tiantai school and elaborated his theories of Mind-Only Amitabha (Intrinsic Amitabha) and Mind-Only Pure Land. He wrote the Summary of the Mysterious Supremacy of the Commentary on the Sutra on Contemplation of the Buddha of Immeasurable Life (観無量寿佛経疏妙宗鈔) and, on the basis of the Sutra of the Contemplation on the Buddha of Immeasurable Life (観無量寿経, hereafter, the Visualization Sutra), he regarded the Samadhi in the Mindfulness of the Buddha as a strict method of meditation equal to the Samadhi in Contemplating the Buddha advocated by the Tiantai school. The Buddha image achieved in the mind would be regarded as the testimony of one’s enlightenment. Puyue's Amitabha Triad has been influenced by Zhili’s theory.4

In Puyue’s Amitabha Triad, the deities, depicted in the elegant attire, light color and thin lines seem to glow as if they are emitting light which fills the leaf-shaped nimbus behind each of the images; this radiation of light is implied by the various ink tones. The fine technique of representing light seems to be associated with the ink-on-paper landscapes of the Jiangnan school in the Southern Song; however the illusory presentation of serene religious sentiment in this painting needs to be distinguished from landscape, which purports to depict the physical world. Puritanically striving for the inward spiritual world, Puyue accomplishes to visualize the image obtained in his mind with mystical lines and tones. This is the reason why Puyue, who never used his worldly name, was thought to have been an advocate of Zhili’s theory and a practitioner of the Tiantai Pure Land school.

Another work from the Southern Song, the Amitabha Triad by Zhang Sigong (張思恭) (Figure 4; Rozan-ji, Kyoto), needs to be addressed. Although we are not certain whether or not Zhang Sigong was a professional painter for the Buddhist subject from Ningbo itself, it can be safely conjectured that he would have been closely associated with Ningbo, which was the urban centre for the Tiantai Pure Land school.5 Especially the Tiantai Great Master (Honkoku-ji, Kyoto) which was on display in the special exhibition of Kyoto National Museum in autumn 2009, has to be deemed to be Zhang’s work on the basis that the work shows similar postures such as eyes looking downwards, as well as its inscription reading “painted by Zhang Sigong of the Great Song (大宋張思恭筆)” written in Zhang's calligraphic style and somewhat light and thin outlines resembling those of the Rozan-ji Amitabha Triad. The portrait in Honkoku-ji is interesting not only because the subject is Zhiyi (智顗), the patriarch of Tiantai school, but also because it shows that Zhang Sigong, while closely associated with the Ningbo region, also had an affinity with Zhang Sixun (張思訓), the painter of another Tiantai Great Master of Saikyō-ji, Shiga, who shared the same surname and middle name.6

( Figure 4 ) Amitabha Triad, Zhang Sigong, Southern Song, 13th century. Hanging scroll; color on silk, 109.7 x 52.8 cm, Rozan-ji, Kyoto

Both Puyue, who denounced the mundane world, and Zhang Sigong, who used his lay surname, produced visualized images based on the Song interpretation of the Visualization Sutra. In order to demonstrate this, I will prove the association between their paintings and the Illustration of the Visualization Sutra (Figure 5; Amida-ji, Nara), which has a concise depiction of the sixteen visualizations explained in the Visualization Sutra.

( Figure 5 ) Illustration of the Visualization Sutra, Kamakura, 13th century. Hanging scroll; color on silk, 128.5 x 61.5 cm, Amida-ji, Nara

The Amida-ji Illustration of the Visualization Sutra was produced during the Kamakura period, modelled on the painting brought by Shunjōbō Chōgen (俊乘房重源, 1121-1206), who had been to China three times. Hamada Takashi and Yamakawa Aki concluded that this painting was structurally based on the Commentary to the Sutra of the Contemplation on the Buddha of Immeasurable Life by Yuanzhao (元照, 1048-1116) who was active in Hangzhou (杭州) during the late Northern Song.7 The upper center is allotted for the first visualization, the “Meditation on the Setting Sun,” the visualizations from the second to the seventh are arrayed on the right, and those from the eighth to the thirteenth, on the left. From the lower middle of the painting to the upper middle are the scenes of the nine-fold future life, arranged into the higher, middle and lower levels. Puyue’s Amitabha Triad has been found to be modelled on the thirteenth visualization, the “Meditation on Complex Concepts,” of this painting and Zhang Sigong’s Amitabha Triad, in which Amitabha is preaching, on the ninth visualization, the “Meditation on Amitabha’s True Body.” This fact testifies that Buddhist paintings of the visualized images from the Song dynasty depict the main deity in the form that is deeply associated with the visualization of Tiantai Pure Land school.

Besides, among the paintings of the visualized images, there are many cases that have the image of surging clouds as seen in the Zhang Sigong's Amitabha Triad. Those clouds are employed here to draw a demarcation separating “the other shore” from “this shore,” and this iconography is widely employed in paintings of the apparition image and the summoned image, a discussion on which follows. For an example, a fine case of the visualized image is Avalokiteshvara with a Thousand Hands and a Thousand Eyes (Eihō-ji, Gifu; Figure 6), which offers an empty sky as the background to the main deity in order to represent the high state of mind obtained through meditation. Depending on whether the place where deities appear is “this shore” or “the other shore,” the visualized image is distinguished from the apparition image, as much as the presence and the absence of the surging clouds would do. As it was the case in Rozan-ji, Zhang Sigong’s Amitabha Triad (Zenrin-ji, Kyoto) shows clouds of five colors in front of Amitabha who is descending to the present world, yet these represent the velocity of Amitabha’s journey and therefore have a different function. Judging from such visual representations, we may regard the Vairocana Triad (Kenchō-ji, Kanagawa), a masterpiece of Buddhist art from the Southern Song, and the Shakyamuni (Seikadō Bunkō Art Museum, Tokyo) as fully-realised paintings of the visualized image.8

( Figure 6 ) Avalokiteshvara with a Thousand Hands and a Thousand Eyes, Southern Song, Late 12th century. Hanging scroll; color on silk, 190.2 x 105.3 cm, Eihō-ji, Gifu

IV APPARITION IMAGE

The apparition image (示現像) denotes a type opposite to the visualized image and signifies an action close to the English word, “apparition” (Figure 7). It refers to cases in which the Buddhas and other deities supposed to be present in “the other shore” have themselves appeared in the present world using their supernatural abilities, and in the Buddhist terminology it is referred to as “instructing.” In the cases of the apparition image, no matter that one should cultivate oneself with proper methods and practices in order to reach enlightenment and also to perceive the true Buddha nature, the deities voluntarily comes down to appear to the people in the mundane world and perform their abilities.

( Figure 7 ) Apparition image

The archetypical painting of the apparition image is Map of Sacred Potalaka (Figure 8; Jōshō-ji, Nagano), which depicts Avalokiteshvara appearing on Mount Potalaka, the famous Avalokiteshvara platform of enlightenment. This painting originates directly from an illustration inserted in a local record, the Dade changguo zhouguo zhi (大徳昌国州国志), compiled during the Dade years (1297-1307) of early Yuan. Nevertheless, the scene of Mount Potalaka in this painting, modified with the unique viewpoints prevalent in the Chinese paintings of important sites, resembles that of the Xihutu (西湖図) inserted in the Xianchun linan zhi (咸淳臨安志), compiled during the Xianchun years (1297-1307) of the Southern Song, as it depicts over eighty sacred places and their landmarks mostly dating back to the eighth year of Jiading (1215), when Pujisi (普済寺) became the central Buddhist monastery exalted as “the Avalokiteshvara Platform of Enlightenment under Heaven” so that Mount Potalaka along with Mount Wutai for the Manjushri cult and Mount Ami for the Samantabhadra cult became one of the Three Platforms of Enlightenment. Therefore, the scene of Potalaka in the Jōshō-ji painting seems to have been based on the image formed in the Southern Song, on which the sacred places, deemed indispensable during the Yuan, were added.9

( Figure 8 ) Map of Sacred Potalaka, Yuan, 13th -14th century. Hanging scroll; color on silk, 112.8 x 56.5 cm, Jōshō-ji, Nagano

On the top of the Jōshō-ji painting is an inscription in gold pigment: “補怛洛迦山觀音現□聖境.” Although unfortunately, due to the deterioration of the silk, one character is yet to be identified, the character xian (現) connotes the meaning of “apparition.” The scene embraced in this painting corresponds to what the inscription describes, and Avalokiteshvara is letting himself appear in a space of “this shore” while seated on a grass mat above Potalaka and, as his attending deities, taking Sudhana and Somachattra, the latter appearing in the Confucian elite’s attire. As seen in the Jōshō-ji painting, surging clouds are widely employed in the apparition image, although they should be distinguished from those appearing in the visualized image in respect that the apparition image causes deities surrounded by clouds to appear in the present world. As already made clear, that through which we identify a painting as a visualized image or an apparition image is not the presence of surging clouds in the painting but whether the place in which the deities appear belongs to “this shore” or “the other shore.”

A fine example of the apparition image would be the White-Robed Avalokiteshvara of Gokuraku-ji in Kagawa (Figure 9).10 In this painting, Avalokiteshvara, in a white garment, seated in the lotus-posture and with both hands holding his left knee, is drawn in a big circle. According to Huaji (画継, preface dated 1167), the painting history by Deng Chun (鄧椿): “Li Gonglin (李公麟, 1049-1106) painted an Avalokiteshvara in the lotus posture with the hands joined, but [otherwise] just like an emancipated (自在) image, saying: “People normally identify Avalokiteshvara (自在) from his relaxed seated posture (破坐), however his emancipated spirit is in the mind and not in his appearance.”11 The White-Robed Avalokiteshvara of the Gokuraku-ji painting employs the relaxed seated posture , which was usual since the Northern Song, yet this painting offers an intriguing point by using authentic coloring with a dexterous contrasting skill and deliberately employs Li Gonglin’s ink drawing method. The date of this painting is thought to be the Yuan period at the latest but the Southern Song of the thirteenth century can also be suggested. Although the painting does not incorporate surging clouds, the swelling sea in the background certainly represents “this shore,” and the swirling sea in the foreground implies the transformation of Avalokiteshvara appearing in the present world.

( Figure 9 ) White-Robed Avalokiteshvara, Yuan, Late 13th century. Hanging scroll; color on silk, 113.8 x 58.5 cm, Gokuraku-ji, Kagawa

Additionally, although the paintings of Amitabha descending to greet the dead soul have often been thought to be apparition images as they involve apparitions of Buddhas and deities, these images depicting the motion of the deities descending through the air, are best considered as a type of the summoned image.

V SUMMONED IMAGE

The summoned image (勧請像) denotes the paintings in which deities from “the other shore” appear in the present world on the request of people in “this shore,” and the meaning closely corresponds to “summon” or “summoning” in English (Figure 10). In the summoned image, deities appear in the present world in response to the request or pleading of people in “this shore” and in doing so the deities appear in a certain designated, pre-determined, pure-area of the present world. For this reason, the summoned image can be mistaken for the apparition image because in both cases, when they are conceived from the viewpoint of “this shore,” the deities from “the other shore” appear in “this shore” to perform their merits. Nevertheless, the summoned image precisely integrates the motion of deities coming through the air, and on this basis it can be clearly distinguished from the visualized image. During the Song, Buddhist rituals were performed more and more widely and ritual manuals were also compiled separately from the existing Tripitaka. In practice, a ritual involved a certain pure-area, the designated enlightenment platform, where paintings are arrayed and to which deities are summoned to descend. The paintings used for such purposes in Buddhist services may be considered as belonging to the category of the summoned image. Clouds are frequently employed in the summoned image; however the clouds in this case are different from the surging clouds in the visualized and the apparition images, as the clouds in the summoned image are drawn to represent the direction and dynamics of the deity moving towards the location of beseeching.

( Figure 10 ) Summoned image

The most frequently-cited examples of the summoned image are a series of water-land paintings (C: shuiluhua, 水陸画). The Descent of Deities to Earth (Figure 11; Private Collection, USAUSAUSA), a water-land painting from the Southern Song, needs to be mentioned here.12 In this painting, five Buddhas, seven itinerant monks, and another forty Buddhas are arrayed diagonally as though they were descending one after another from the clouds. This painting is thought to date around 1200, the Southern Song, and thus to be the earliest extant water-land painting. As for the textual basis for this painting, the best known is the Fajieshengfan shuiliu shenghuixiuzhai yigui (法界聖凡水陸勝会修齋儀軌) of late Southern Song written by Zhipan (志磐), a monk scholar of the Tiantai school residing in Yuebosi (月波寺) north-west of Dongqianhu (東銭湖), East Ningbo. He was ordained at Junjiaoyuan (尊教院) located close to Yuebosi. The deities appearing in the painting are in accordance with this text; the five Buddhas, i.e. Mahavairocana, Vairocana, Shakyamuni, Amitabha, and Maitreya, the seven dharma-seeking or sutra-translating monks, representing the Tiantai, Meditation, Pure Land, Flower Garland, Ziyin, Esoteric, or Vinaya schools, respectively, and the forty Buddhas who correspond to the multiple Buddhas of the three times, the Buddhas of the world of the ten directions, and the three-thousand Buddhas of the past, the present and the future. The Descent of Deities to Earth thus comprises a countless number of Buddhas, who are explained in a myriad volumes of sutras, brought to China by dharma-seeking monks from China and sutra-translating monks from India, descending in response to beseeching to the water-land platform of enlightenment in “this shore.”13

( Figure 11 ) Descent of Deities to Earth, Southern Song, Early 13th century. Hanging scroll; color on silk, 131.0 x 58.8 cm, Private Collection, USA

The clouds accompanied by the summoned deities in the Descent of Deities to Earth demarcate “this shore” and “the other shore,” and at the same time effectively function to express the direction and velocity of their travel. Besides, in the exhibition Sacred Ningbo, the Five Hundred Lohans in a set of two paintings (cat. no. 120), preserved in Chion-in, Kyoto, was displayed together with this painting (cat. no. 118) and a careful examination conducted by scholars in the exhibition venue has discovered that the Five Hundred Lohans in two paintings and the Descent of Multiple Deities originally constituted one set.14

There are more water-land paintings from the Southern Song such as the Six Dharmas preserved in Shin-Chion-in, Shiga, and the Turning Constellations preserved in Zuisen-ji, Aichi. As to these sets of paintings, altogether eight in all, Takasu Jun surmises that they originally constituted one work possibly with more paintings on the basis of their common painting style and features – each representing ten deities in total descending across clouds.15 The exhibition Sacred Ningbo followed Takasu’s conjecture by displaying these two sets (cat. nos. 123, 124) in one space. The structures in which the deities are arranged in the Zuisen-ji and Shin-Chion-in paintings appear more accurately corresponding, rather than to the above mentioned Descent of Deities to Earth, to the Fajieshengfan shuiliu shenghuixiuzhai yigui which says that in the water-land festivals of the late Southern Song the indoor altar of the enlightenment platform was divided into upper and lower halls and ten deities were summoned to each hall.

Painting 1 from Zuisen-ji (Figure 12, right), the deities of which face to the left, shows three figures with crowns in the front, two more16 flanking an empress wearing the Crown of Dragon and Phoenix and Pearl and Jade, followed by an emperor with mortarboard crown in the middle, and in the rear Confucius in a white robe with his hands in the revering position and beside him Laozi in a black robe with big ears and shaved head: these figures correspond to the Emperor and the Empress, the Civil and Military Officials, the Confucian Masters and the Men of Wisdom, the Daoist Hermit Masters and the attending deities, who are explained in Zhipan’s text as the subject of the second summoning. Painting 2 (Figure 12, left) has, as the leading figure, an empress wearing the Crown of Dragon and Phoenix and Pearl and Jade, followed by an emperor with the Crown of Twelve Flags and robe with the Twelve Symbols, and other attending deities. As to two of the figures, the seventh with a wooden hammer and the ninth with a chicken crown and a dipper, Takasu allows the possibility that they are two of the Five Ministers of Plague. With special regard to the appearance of the gods of plague, they would be the Gods and Goddesses of the Five Purgatories and the Four Rivers, the Multiple Gods and Goddesses of Luck and Fortune Supporting the Earth and Strolling in the Air, the Spirits of Ancestral Services and Holy Shrines, and other attending deities, who are according to Zhipan’s text the second last to be summoned, and thus among them the guardian deities associated with the function of superintending plague may feature. In this picture, the gods and goddesses of heaven, earth, mountains and rivers appear in the images of the emperor or empress. If so, the emperor image in the center may represent the Duke of Great Mountain of the Great Emperor of the Eastern Range, and the empress image may be taken to represent the Queen Mother of the West who was exalted as an empress during the Southern Song and revered as a Buddhist deity. The figure in the bowing posture with the Wish-Fulfilling Crown, the second one from the head of the line, is the god of luck.17

( Figure 12 ) Paintings Thought to Depict Astral Constellations, Southern Song, 13th century. Two hanging scrolls; color on silk, 103.5 x 45.7 cm, Zuisen-ji, Aichi

In the Shin-Chion-in paintings, if we follow Zhipan’s text, the painting which was once thought to be a scene of rebirth is more suitable to be construed as the people who established the water-land festival and ranked as the tenth in the upper hall, and the painting known as the scene of the purgatory is more suitable to be construed as the figures of the seventh rank; Yama-raja, Ten Kings and Sisters, Eighteen Minor Kings, Multiple Servants, and other attending deities. One would surmise, on the basis of Zhipan’s text, that the work originally consisted of twenty paintings; however, there are no guarantees to identify every figure in the painting as one appearing in the text, and thus we need to be more careful in establishing the relevance of the theory to the painting. In any case, Zuisen-ji’s and Shin-Chion-in’s paintings are rare examples of the painting style that was widely employed for water-land paintings in the Ningbo area in the Southern Song period.

A summoned image from the Song survives, structured on the basis of the Jinguangming zuishengwang jing (金光明最勝王経) translated by Yijing (義淨) and used at a confessional ritual. The exhibition Sacred Ningbo provided a separate exhibition room to display a pair of shrine doors, each with two panels, from the Kamakura period (Figure 13) formerly used to enshrine the King Udayana Shakyamuni statue of Seiryō-ji, brought from China by Chōnen. Taniguchi Kōsei pointed out that the twelve deities depicted on the doors are the celestial deities who were summoned to the Golden Light Repentance Rite of the Song. Led by his own excellent view that the ritualistic method of the water-land festivals was inherited from the Golden Light Repentance Rite of the Song, Taniguchi demonstrates that cultivation-rectification festivals held in the first month of the lunar calendar in Sennyū-ji, Kyoto, also inherit the ritual tradition of the Song.18

( Figure 13 ) Standing Shakyamuni, paintings from the doors of a portable shrine, Kamakura, 13th century. Four panels; color on wood, 168.1 x 44.3-50.7 cm, Seiryō-ji, Kyoto

The Golden Light Repentance Rite purports to rectify natural and social disasters such as unexpected changes in heaven and earth, ailments and elements threatening the stable prosperity of the state, following the Jinguangming zuishengwang jing, translated by Yijing. In the ritual, taking place in the enlightenment platform of Shakyamuni, multiple deities from heaven are summoned and receive the reverence and hear the repentance of the people in the mundane world. A manual for this ritual was established by Zunshi (遵式, 960-1032) of the Northern Song who played an important role in the Song revival of the Tiantai doctrines in collaboration with Zhili. Xiatianzhusi (下天竺寺) of Hangzhou was the centre for this form of ritual, which subsequently became widespread. Lin Mingyu recently discovered that there were a number of discourses on the order of deities to be summoned in the platform for Golden Light repentance rituals, and nearly twenty deities and their attendants are known to have been determined in the early Southern Song according to the Zhutianzhuan (諸天伝) by Xinhuan (神煥) and Zhongbian zhutianzhuan (重編諸天伝) by Xingting (行霆).19

Although dated in the Yuan, relatively late, a painting in four panels called the Assembly of Daoist and Buddhist Deities (道仏諸尊集会図), preserved in Myōkō-ji, Aichi and listed as an Important Cultural Property, offers images of the deities to be summoned in the Golden Light repentance rituals in the Shakyamuni platform of enlightenment. Each painting accommodates the images of five deities and altogether twenty deities in four paintings, which constitute a world of their own. Further surviving examples of the summoned image are a work from the Ming in Shinkō-ji, famous wall paintings by the court painters in Fahaisi (法海寺) of Beijing dated to 1445, which depicted twenty deities and their attendants and some surviving paintings of a certain work from the Edo period which was used in the Golden Light repentance ritual. The three water-land paintings in Shōkaku-ji can be safely categorized into the summoned image.20 Although not to be deemed of the summoned image, the Assembly of the Three Buddhas and Multiple Deities (Mangan-ji, Kyoto) shares the same eighteen deities with the Myokō-ji painting.21

I have enumerated so far a few examples of the summoned image, including those that were discovered recently. Its main characteristic lies solely in the image of the deities moving across the air. As mentioned earlier, in the paintings from the Southern Song, clouds play an important role in presenting the dynamics and direction of movement. What is interesting is that a certain association with rituals is identified in the Mahamayuri (Ninna-ji, Kyoto) which is known to be a stylistic variant of a Northern Song Buddhist painting. One may prefer to categorize this painting as a visualized image as Mahamayuri riding clouds faces the front of the painting; however the clouds accompanying the deity are connected by their tails to be transformed into the clouds of distinct shapes, and they are the images of different nature from the surging clouds appearing in the paintings of the visualized image. In this case the deity is shown descending at an overwhelming speed from “the other shore” to “this shore.” It is highly probable that the Mahamayuri was produced to be used for summoning the deity in the rituals for Mahamayuri.22 If the style of “moving across the air with accompanying clouds” is particularly taken for the basis of identifying the category to which the painting should belong, many Amitabha paintings produced widely in East Asia may well be regarded as the summoned image. In the present discussion, only one painting will be introduced as an example of such a case, which is the Descent of Amitabha Triad of the early Southern Song, now preserved in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Figure 14).23

( Figure 14 ) Amitabha Trinity Descending on Clouds, Southern Song, 12th century. Hanging scroll; color on silk, 97.1 x 53.8 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Denman Waldo Ross Collection (09.86) Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

VI BUDDHIST PAINTINGS FROM THE SOUTHERN SONG TO THE YUAN

The Buddhist paintings of the Song have been found to have three types of visual representations when they are construed in the framework consisting of “this shore” and “the other shore.” The system could not avoid a major change when the new age, the Yuan, advanced. The contemplation displayed in the visualized images of the Song disappears in the Buddhist paintings of the Yuan and the images of the deities are adorned with the increasing decorations: sometimes even abnormal images such as the Shakyamuni Triad in Rokuō-in, Kyoto, embracing both Buddhist and Daoist images, appeared. In this case, there is no demarcation between “this shore” and “the other shore,” and the surging clouds depicting the dynamics of travel across the two realms are not employed. As it has already been pointed out in my earlier publication on the Song and Yuan Buddhist paintings in Japan, the strong inclination to the religious practicality which is noteworthy in the Yuan Buddhist paintings represents the mergence between the Buddhism of mundane wishes, i.e. the Amitabha Pure Land cult, and the Daoistic and folk beliefs whose concerns are with practical interests.24

Daoism has theories of longevity and immortality in the place of the Buddhist issues of death and reincarnation, and therefore the paintings of the Buddhist-Daoist mergence would make the demarcation, and distance, between “this” and “the other” realms blurred and rarely detached, and they set up their own route to circulate between the two realms (Figure 15). When people are strongly concerned with practical wishes, they keep the deities in “the other shore,” thus meant to be astray from them, staying in the practical world to be visible to them. In respect that they appear to the eyes of people, the paintings may seem to be of the kind similar to the apparition image, however, the deities are neither those in “the other shore” nor those appearing in “this shore.”

( Figure 15 ) Syncretic image of Buddhism with Daoism

Among the Buddhist paintings of devotional deities from the Yuan, there are Shakyamuni triads; one in Rokuō-in, Kyoto (Figure 16), mentioned, another in Nison-in, Kyoto with an inscription in red ink: “進士王鍔妻孫百三娘合家眷發心綵絵,” a third from Joshō-ji, Nagano with a seal in ink: “陀市林子明畫,” and a fourth which was formerly in Tōfuku-ji and now is preserved separately in the Cleveland Museum of Art and Seikadō Bunkō Art Museum. In addition, the Amitabha Triad in Uesugi Jinja, Yamagata bears an inscription in ink with the information that the Xu (徐) family donated in 1309 to produce it. None of these paintings employ clouds.25 The tendency that devotional paintings in the transitional period from the Southern Song to the Yuan employ gradually less clouds is well manifested in the Shakyamuni Triad in Tōfuku-ji, Kyoto, and the Shakyamuni Triad with Eighteen Lohans in the Okazaki City Art Museum. These paintings are dated to the late thirteenth century.26 Even in the summoned images, which should involve “moving across the air,” Buddha Amitabha Descending from His Pure Land in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Figure 17), and the Multiple Heavenly Deities in Shōkaku-ji, Aichi, the latter seems to display an association with the Golden Light repentance ritual: there are no clouds to be found in the paintings from the Yuan.27 Along with the gradual disappearance of the surging clouds in the Buddhist paintings during the transition from the Southern Song to the Yuan, some individual developments can be highly assessed such as more humanistic images with long finger nails, i.e. Daoistic or folk images, enhanced contrasts, and more graceful decorations made with gold pigment to make the paintings appear more practically realistic; however they might seem to suggest that the deities are meant to be of the present world.

( Figure 16 ) Shakyamuni Triad, Yuan, 14th century. Three hanging scrolls; color on silk, 135.7 x 77.2 cm, Rokuō-in, Kyoto

( Figure 17 ) Buddha Amitabha Descending from His Pure Land, Southern Song, late 13th century. Hanging scroll; ink, color and gold on silk, 104.5 x 53.7 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Rogers Fund, 1987 (1987.148) Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York / Art Resource, NY

VII CONCLUSION

In the present discussion, aided by the scholarly understandings achieved from the exhibition Sacred Ningbo, three distinguishable characteristics in the Buddhist paintings of devotional deities from the Southern Song has been introduced, by categorization into the visualized, the apparition, and the summoned images. Also mentioned has been the way how the Buddhist visual presentations of the Yuan resulted from the mergence between the Buddhist and Daoist images, greatly modified from those of the Southern Song.

The significance of the exhibition Sacred Ningbo, which attempted to interpret the context formulated by objects, place and people and their interrelatedness in the networks, may well be more highly appreciated in the present scholarly fashion, which advocates cross-boundary research. However it is still the field of art history that needs to amplify and deepen the discussions on the issue of “visuality” that is broadly related to our system, either taking a broad perspective or perceiving as appearing. This preliminary discussion leaves behind the question on how the facts discovered here have been made manifested, in terms of differences or similarities, on the East Asian religious art in general, and, more broadly, to the religious art in its entirety.