Fenggan, Hanshan, and Shide

The bizarre shapes of vaporous clouds form the backdrop of this unusual diptych. In the left scroll two unkempt men stand on a hillside. The one with his back turned to the viewer and a bamboo bucket in his left hand is Kanzan (Ch: Hanshan; Cold Mountain). The bucket is Kanzan's attribute, and with it he is supposed to have collected leftover food from temple kitchens. His animated companion is Jittoku (Ch: Shide; The Foundling), who holds the broom suggestive of the menial tasks he performed around temples. The right scroll represents Bukan (Ch: Fenggan), their elder mentor, who is always accompanied by his pet tiger. Only the face of this docile creature is visible as he snatches a catnap in the shadow of the rock on which his master is seated. Bukan stares ahead, his attention riveted on the abyss. The setting is probably the Icy Cliff at Tientai, the mountain in South China that is the abode of these three legendary, quasi-historical characters.

Favorite subjects of ink monochrome by Zen monks both in China and in Japan, the three are believed to have lived during the Tang dynasty (618–907), between the late eighth and the early ninth century.[1] The life of Kanzan is the best documented, as three hundred poems are attributed to him. These poems suggest that Kanzan, born of a farmer's family, was an unsociable man whose only enjoyment in life was reading books. Though harmless, this hobby led to his being rejected even by his own wife. So he left his village to live at Icy Cliff. His poems suggest little of the eccentricity usually associated with his behavior; his reputation probably derives from a description in the preface to a collection of his poems, the Hanshanzi shiji.[2] The preface is traditionally attributed to Luqiu Yin, a prefect in the Taizhou area who lived during the Tang dynasty. In it, Luqiu describes his visit to Bukan in his search for enlightenment. Bukan, in turn, referred him to Kanzan and Jittoku, whom he described as the personifications of two bodhisattvas, Monju and Fugen. When Luqiu made the proper obeisance to them, the two men shouted and laughed and said, "[Bukan] has a long tongue. You did not recognize [him as Miroku, the Buddha of the Future]. Why are you making obeisance to us now?"[3] Whereupon they joined hands and fled to neighboring mountains. In the Burke diptych Kanzan and Jittoku point to the valley, either in reference to the futility of Luqiu's search or to the nature of truth as being as vaporous as the rising mist. It is possible that the space above the clouds was reserved for inscriptions that would have provided a narrative for the scene.

The subject enjoyed enormous popularity in Japan beginning in the early fifteenth century, as documented in the Gyobutsu gyoga mokuroku, an early-fifteenth-century catalogue of the Ashikaga collection of Chinese paintings.[4] While later versions of the subject usually do not seem to have specific narrative content, the Burke scrolls suggest a particular episode of the legend. A Kano school copy of a painting by Liang Kai (fl. 1st half of 13th century), now in the Tokyo National Museum, is nearly a mirror image of the left scroll and thus perhaps served as a model. It is not unlikely that another work by Liang Kai, depicting Bukan and his tiger, also served the same purpose.[5]

The scrolls, save for light washes of orange red and brown, are monochrome, which varies in subtly graded tones from coal black to the lightest gray. The pervasive ice-cold atmosphere and cutting edge of Jittoku's laughter are relieved only by the contented, dozing tiger. Brushstrokes that delineate the folds of the robes begin thickly and deliberately, creating exaggerated nailheads and turns in each line. A similar angularity characterizes the rocks in the foreground. Other features of Reisai's style are the application of ink over broad areas and the absence of texture strokes on rocks and ground.

The Burke diptych was traditionally attributed to Kichizan Minchō (1352–1431), an ink painter active at Tōfukuji, Kyoto.[6] It was reattributed in 1969 on stylistic grounds to Reisai (fl. 1430–50 ), a younger contemporary.[7] Ultraviolet examination of the left scroll has since revealed the trace of a square seal at the upper right corner that appears to have the same dimensions as Reisai's other known seals. And the artist's signature has been detected on the right scroll.[8]

In addition to stylistic similarities in their work, Reisai and Minchō may have belonged to the same circle of painters based at Tōfukuji. Reisai's somewhat old-fashioned use of gold not only in his rendering of jewelry and clothing but for his signature as well, as in a painting of Monju in the Tokyo National Museum,[9] may also provide a link to the artistic tradition of the workshop at Tōfukuji. The practice recalls the work of Ryōzen (fl. 1348–55), an artist active at the temple a century earlier, who painted traditional Buddhist figures and Zen-inspired subjects and who also signed his name in gold ink. Reisai too seems to have painted only Buddhist subjects.

Reisai's artistic activity covered at least thirty years. In 1435 he painted a large Nirvana picture, now in Daizōkyōji, Yamanashi Prefecture.[10] It is accompanied by an 1821 copy of the original colophon, which states that the painting was executed by "Monk Reisai" in 1435 for Jōkyōji, in Shizuoka, near Kamakura. The picture was modeled closely after an older work of the same subject in the collection of Enkakuji, Kamakura. This historical date allows us to postulate that Reisai may have come from the east, possibly from around Kamakura, where he received his early training in traditional Buddhist pictures. He later moved to Kyoto, where he became acquainted with Zen monks, some of whom wrote inscriptions on his paintings. It was perhaps through this connection that Reisai, in 1463, came to accompany a trade mission to Korea. There he presented a painting of White-Robed Kannon to Sejo, the reigning king.[11]

[Miyeko Murase 2000, Bridge of Dreams]

[1] Wu Chi-yu 1957, p. 393; see also Hanshan 1970, p. 10; and Brinker and Kanazawa Hiroshi 1996, pp. 142–48.
[2] Wu Chi-yu 1957, pp. 411–14; and Tochigi Prefectural Museum 1994.
[3] Ibid., p. 414.
[4] Tani Shin'ichi 1936, pp. 439–47.
[5] Y. Shimizu and Wheelwright 1976, fig. 29 ; and Shimada Shūjirō 1979, nos. 21, 22.
[6] Kano Tan'yu's certificate of attribution to Minchō is still preserved with the painting.
[7] Eto Shun in Shimada Shūjirō 1969, vol. 1, p. 104.
[8] Tanaka Ichimatsu 1974, p. 111; and Y. Shimizu and Wheelwright 1976, p. 71, n. 4.
[9] Tanaka Ichimatsu 1974, pl. 111.
[10] Ibid., pl. 113.
[11] Chosðn wangjo sillok 1955–58, vol. 7,

[ N. V. Hammer, Inc. , New York, 1968; sold to Burke]; Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation , New York (1968–2015; donated to MMA)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Japanese Art: Selections from the Mary and Jackson Burke Collection," November 7, 1975–January 4, 1976.

Seattle Art Museum. "Japanese Art: Selections from the Mary and Jackson Burke Collection," March 10–May 1, 1977.

Minneapolis Institute of Arts. "Japanese Art: Selections from the Mary and Jackson Burke Collection," June 1–July 17, 1977.

Tokyo National Museum. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," May 21, 1985–June 30, 1985.

Ishikawa Prefectural Museum. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," July 13, 1985–August 11, 1985.

Nagoya City Art Museum. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," August 17, 1985–September 23, 1985.

Atami. MOA Museum of Art. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," September 29, 1985–October 27, 1985.

Hamamatsu City Museum of Art. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," November 12, 1985–December 1, 1985.

New York. Asia Society. "Art of Japan: Selections from the Burke Collection, pts. I and II," October 2, 1986–February 22, 1987.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Japanese Ink Paintings from the Collection of Mary and Jackson Burke," February 15–June 25, 1989.

Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt. "Die Kunst des Alten Japan: Meisterwerke aus der Mary and Jackson Burke Collection," September 16, 1990–November 18, 1990.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Seasonal Pleasures in Japanese Art, Part III," April 22–August 5, 1996.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Japanese Art from The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," March 30–June 25, 2000.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Great Waves: Chinese Themes in the Arts of Korea and Japan II," March 22–September 21, 2003.

Museum of Fine Arts, Gifu. "Enduring Legacy of Japanese Art: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," July 5, 2005–August 19, 2005.

Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum. "Enduring Legacy of Japanese Art: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," October 4, 2005–December 11, 2005.

Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. "Enduring Legacy of Japanese Art: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," January 24, 2006–March 5, 2006.

Miho Museum. "Enduring Legacy of Japanese Art: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," March 15, 2006–June 11, 2006.

New York. Japan Society Gallery. "Awakenings: Zen Figure Painting in Medieval Japan," March 28, 2007–June 14, 2007.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Celebrating the Arts of Japan: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," October 20, 2015–May 14, 2017.

Tsuji Nobuo 辻惟雄, Mary Griggs Burke, Nihon Keizai Shinbunsha 日本経済新聞社, and Gifu-ken Bijutsukan 岐阜県美術館. Nyūyōku Bāku korekushon-ten: Nihon no bi sanzennen no kagayaki ニューヨーク・バーク・コレクション展 : 日本の美三千年の輝き(Enduring legacy of Japanese art: The Mary Griggs Burke collection). Exh. cat. [Tokyo]: Nihon Keizai Shinbunsha, 2005, cat. no. 38.

Murase, Miyeko, Il Kim, Shi-yee Liu, Gratia Williams Nakahashi, Stephanie Wada, Soyoung Lee, and David Sensabaugh. Art Through a Lifetime: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection. Vol. 1, Japanese Paintings, Printed Works, Calligraphy. [New York]: Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, [2013], pp. 76–77, cat. no. 97.