Satsubari, the Second of the Sixteen Arhats

The exotic figure in this painting is a rakan. The concept of this Buddhist saint originated in India and reached Japan by way of China. In the Mahayana tradition, rakan appeared in groups of sixteen, eighteen, or five hundred; the group of the Sixteen Rakan is particularly common.[1] The most important Chinese scriptural source for the Sixteen Rakan is the Da aluohan Nandimiduoluo suo shuo fazhuji (A Record of the Abiding of the Dharma Spoken by the Great Arhat Nanimitra), known by its short title, Fazhuji, and in Japanese as the Hōjūki, which was translated in the Tang dynasty by the monk Xuanzang (596–664).[2] According to the Hōjūki, rakan were charged with protecting the Buddha's Law during the period between Shakyamuni's death and the coming of Maitreya, the Buddha of the Future. They also had a mission to bless faithful donors through their magical powers. The scripture lists their names, the number of their attendants, and their residences but does not describe their individual iconographic features. Their vivid images may perhaps have been inspired by episodes in the lives of venerated monks and of the rakan Pindola, the first disciple of the Buddha, who was worshiped as a single deity and whose lively adventures are recounted in various texts.[3]

As with many other Buddhist beliefs, the rakan cult in Japan was fostered by monks who had visited China and learned about contemporary Buddhism.[4] Particularly in its early stages in Japan, the rakan cult was closely associated with the teachings of the Lotus Sutra, the fundamental scripture of Mahayana Buddhism. Among the earliest examples of rakan imagery were the twenty-eight rakan—the number relating to the twenty-eight chapters of the Lotus Sutra—painted on the interior walls of the Golden Hall at Hōryūji in the early eighth century.
In Song China, paintings of rakan were produced in great numbers by professional artists in Ningbo, near Hangzhou. Later, many of these were exported to Japan, where they were much copied. Whether Chinese or Japanese in origin, rakan paintings are traditionally divided into two types based on the physiognomy of the subject. Those that are Chinese in appearance are known in Japan either as the Zhang Xuan (fl. ca. 890–930) or Li Gonglin (fl. ca. 1041–1105) type, after two innovative Chinese figure painters; those that are Indian in appearance are known as the Guanxiu (832–912) type.[5] The latter is exemplified by ink paintings in the Imperial Household Collection, but many other versions of the type also exist in polychrome, the category to which the Burke painting belongs.[6]
The rakan portrayed here in near profile has a powerfully modeled face with prominent nose and chin, broad forehead, and long, curly hair. Deep wrinkles, heavy eyebrows, and piercing eyes convey his rugged spirit. Seated on a rock next to a pedestal surmounted by what is probably an offering container in the shape of a lotus, he holds up a glass vase protected by a cloth. A non-East Asian boy standing next to him offers a watermelon on a metal plate. Both figures look to the left, as if worshiping a deity beyond the edge of the scroll. An inscription at the upper right identifies the rakan as the Second Rakan, Satsubari, and states the number in his entourage—twelve hundred—and his residence. The name Satsubari is not, interestingly, that of the Second Rakan in the Hōjūki. Probably because the Hōjūki does not describe each rakan individually, their identification depends entirely on inscriptions. It is notable, however, that the vase held by the rakan recalls a line from a poem by Su Shi (1037– 1101) about the Second Rakan that refers to a glass reliquary containing ten relics.[7] Although individual iconographic motifs are not mentioned in the Hōjūki, in Song China popular knowledge of a rakan's attributes, such as the glass reliquary, may well have been widespread.
There are at least six other extant paintings from the same set as that of the Burke scroll: two ( of the First and the Third Rakan; figs. 24a, b) in the Tokyo National Museum, two (of the Sixth and the Fifteenth Rakan; figs. 24c, f) in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and two whose whereabouts are unknown (figs. 24d, e).[8] There are two similar sets that are complete, one at Jōkyōji, Wakayama, the other at the Ōkura Shūkokan Museum, Tokyo.[9] A Chinese Eighteen Rakan set dating to 1345 and now dispersed is stylistically comparable to the set to which the Burke scroll belongs, supporting a date in the fourteenth century for the Burke painting.[10]
Various techniques used in the Burke scroll and its six companion scrolls can be traced to Chinese sources, specifically to the style of Yuan figure painting exemplified by the rakan in the Eighteen Rakan set. Evidence of a Chinese source is seen here in the complex treatment of the rock on which the rakan is seated, its volume and texture conveyed with a subtle gradation of ink wash. In the cultural and sociopolitical climate of Japan at this time, when the importation of goods from China was at its height, highly regarded Chinese and Chinese-flavored objects such as the Burke painting must have been often and appreciatively used in rakan ceremonies in temples throughout Japan.
MW

[Miyeko Murase 2000, Bridge of Dreams]

[1] For their names, see Fong 1958, pp. 35–36; and Kent 1994, p. 206. The Eighteen Rakan add two names to the Sixteen, generally Mahakashyapa and Nandmitra. For the names of the Five Hundred Rakan, see Kawai Masatomo 1983, pp. 132–38.
[2] Dai-arakan Nandebamirswara shosetsu hōjūki, in Daizōkyō 1914–32, vol. 49, no. 2030.
[3] See Miyazaki Noriko 1981, p. 155; Nakamura Kōji 1993, pp. 15–29; and Nakamura Kōji 1996, pp. 79–97.
[4] Miyazaki Noriko 1981; and Kajitani Ryōji 1987.
[5] For the typology of rakan paintings, see Miyazaki Noriko 1981; and Kent 1995, chap. 2.
[6] Kobayashi Taichirō 1947.
[7] Su Shi 1991, p. 668.
[8] According to identically worded documentation found in the boxes that contained the New York and Tokyo scrolls, the set comes from Hokokuji, on Shikoku Island. The texts may have been copied from an original that was lost when the set was dispersed. The documentation records a history of repairs, the earliest of which was in 1283. It is, however, difficult to accept a date before 1283, given the painting's later style. All five scrolls have an additional vertical strip of silk joined at about 4.5 centimeters (1 3/4 in.) from the left or right side. Only the Burke scroll retains a part of the mounting at the top.
[9] For the Wakayama set, see Akazawa Eiji 1995, p. 28. I would like to thank Professor Kawai Masatomo, of Keio University, Tokyo, for drawing my attention to this set. For the Tokyo set, see "Ōkura Shūkokan" 1934, pp. 281–82.
[10] Twelve paintings from the 1341 set are known. Four are in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; two are at the Shanghai Museum of Art and History; one is at Nanjing University; one is in The Metropolitan Museum of Art; one is in the Saint Louis Art Museum; one is in the British Museum; and two are in unknown collections. For the last mentioned, see "Rakan zu" 1918; and sale catalogue, Sotheby's, New York, June 4, 1982, no. 114.

[ David Newman , London, 1998; sold to Burke]; Mary Griggs Burke , New York (from 1998; transferred to Foundation); Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation , New York (until 2015; donated to MMA)

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.

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

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], p. 15, cat. no. 25.