Section from The Life and Acts of the Great Master from Kōya (Kōya daishi gyōjō zue)

This portion of a long banquet scene comes from an illustrated biography of Kūkai (774–835), the founder of Japan's Esoteric Shingon School. Kūkai is also known by his posthumous title Kōbō Daishi (Great Master of Spreading the Buddhist Law) and by the sobriquet Koya Daishi, a name that derives from his primary temple of residence on Mount Kōya. In this painting, Kūkai celebrates his initiation into the esoteric teachings of his master Huiguo (746–805) of the Zhenyan School. The architecture of the temple and the garb of the figures attending the monks indicate that the location is China. A monk who may be Kūkai sits on a platform with two other monks and raises his black lacquered bowl and spoon. Illustrated biographies such as this flourished in the Kamakura and Nanbokuchō periods (1336–92), when members of the Pure Land School founded by Hōnen (1133–1212) and other Pure Land Buddhist organizations created them to promote their recently deceased founders and patriarchs. The Shingon School is notable among the more traditional Buddhist schools for the unusual vigor with which it matched the visualizing efforts of these newer Pure Land organizations. The scrolls would have played a central role in bringing to life and humanizing the school's dynamic ninth-century founder Kūkai.