Hanshan and Shide (Japanese: Kanzan and Jittoku)
Itō Jakuchū Japanese
Calligraphy attributed to Ike Taiga Japanese
Not on view
Hanshan and Shide (active late 8th–early 9th century) were Chan Buddhist monks who held low-level positions at Guoqingsi, a temple on China’s sacred Mount Tiantai. Turned away from the viewer here, Hanshan (“Cold Mountain”) was a reclusive monk-poet. Shide, his constant companion, carries a broom indicating his role as the temple’s janitor. The pair of figures came to represent an iconoclastic aspect of Chan (Japanese: Zen) monastic practice and was a popular theme in Japanese painting.
In the Buddhist tradition, Hanshan and Shide were also honored as emanations of the bodhisattvas Monju and Fugen (Sanskrit: Manjushri and Samantabhadra), representing the virtues of wisdom and compassion. The inscription refers to this association: “One is the Bodhisattva of the Great Path. The other the Patriarch of the Great Buddha. What evidence is there? A broken broom, a tattered scripture, and unrhymed verse” (trans. Aaron Rio).
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