Hanshan and Shide

The eighth-century Chinese figures Hanshan and Shide (Kanzan and Jittoku, in Japanese) were Chan (Zen) Buddhist monks who held low-level positions at Guoqingsi, a temple on China’s sacred Mount Tiantai. Hanshan was a reclusive monk-poet, while Shide, his constant companion, is often shown carrying a broom, indicating his role as the temple’s custodian. This beloved pair of eccentric figures came to represent an iconoclastic aspect of Zen monastic practice and is among the most popular figural subjects in Japanese painting. Once likened to the bodhisattvas Samantabhadra (Japanese: Fugen) and Manjushri (Monju), attendant figures to the Historical Buddha, Shakyamuni, Hanshan and Shide also came to be understood as guardians of the Buddha and Buddhist teachings.

This image of the monks shows them side by side, with Shide in front, hands held behind his back, while Hanshan behind him points to the sky and casts a knowing glance to his companion. Compositions like this one were derived from paintings held in Japanese collections that were believed to have been created by the Chinese Zen monk-painter Muqi 牧谿 (active ca. 1250–80) (Rio 2015, pp. 86–8 and 106–13). One such work, which shares a composition with the present work, is held in a private Japanese collection (see Toda 1973, p. 185). Such pictures proliferated in sixteenth-century eastern Japan, where they were frequently painted by followers of the master monk-painter Kenkō Shōkei 賢江祥啓, active in the city of Kamakura until the first quarter of the century. In addition to the present work, at least three other versions by followers of Shōkei, including Kōboku 興牧 (Tochigi Prefectural Museum, Masaki Museum of Art) and Kōetsu 興悦 (former Drucker Collection) are known (Aizawa and Hashimoto 2007, pp. 236–8). Although no such work believed to have come from the hand of Shōkei survives today, the numerous later versions by his followers hint at a now lost original by Shōkei and attest to the popularity of the subject.

The present work is impressed at lower right with a seal that suggests it was created by one of late medieval eastern Japan's most prolific painters, Keison. Active in the mid- to late sixteenth century, Keison fashioned himself a follower of Shōkei, though he is not known to have studied directly with him. He did, however, base many of his paintings on works by the earlier master and adopted the second Chinese character from Shōkei 啓 as the first character of his own name. However, the seal is not consistent with any of the known seals of this artist and is believed to be spurious (Aizawa and Hashimoto 2007, p. 423). The painting nevertheless reflects the style of circle of sixteenth-century artists in eastern Japan working in the style of Kenkō Shōkei.

Aizawa Masahiko and Hashimoto Shinji, eds. Kantō suibokuga: kata to imēji no keifu. Tokyo: Kokusho Kankōkai, 2007.

Rio, Aaron M. "Ink Painting in Medieval Kamakura." Columbia University, Ph.D. diss., 2015.

Toda Teisuke, ed. Mokkei, Gyokkan. Suiboku bijutsu taikei 3. Tokyo: Kōdansha, 1973.

[Aaron Rio, December 2020]

Signature: Artist's seal (lower right, square intaglio seal): Keison 啓孫 [NB: This is a spurious seal.]

[ Roland Koscherak , New York, until 1957; sold to MMA]