Arhats (rakan in Japanese) are the legendary disciples of Shakyamuni Buddha charged with inspiring others and protecting Buddhist law and the path to enlightenment through meditation until the coming of the future Buddha, Maitreya. Veneration of Arhats was introduced into Japan in the tenth century by the monk Chōnen (ca. 938–1016), who brought the cult from the monastic center at Wutai Shan in northern China. Within the contemplative Zen sect, the ascetic associations of Arhats had particular significance. Originally from a set of sixteen, these two scrolls show the fifteenth and the sixth Arhats: Asita is attended by a dwarf carrying an eroded rock that represents Mount Sumeru, the mountain at the center of the Buddhist cosmos, and Badhara has long eyebrows and an aged visage that evokes the physical and spiritual rigors of meditation.
