Hanshan and Shide

This early twentieth-century diptych of paintings takes up the popular theme of the eighth-century eccentric Chinese Chan (Zen) monks Hanshan and Shide (Kanzan and Jittoku, in Japanese), who held low-level positions at Guoqingsi, a temple on China’s sacred Mount Tiantai. This beloved pair of eccentric figures came to represent an iconoclastic aspect of Chan monastic practice; they are among the most popular figural subjects in Japanese painting. Depicted on the right scroll (painted in 1917) is the reclusive monk-poet Hanshan, shown standing garbed in black robes, looking downwards. The mountain setting reminds us that the monk’s name literally means “Cold Mountain,” which was also the title of a posthumously compiled anthology of his poems, which treat themes of Chan reclusion, encouraging readers to “come to Cold Mountain, if you dare.” The painting on the left, finished in 1918, shows Shide crouched on the ground near the entrance to the monastery where he worked as a custodian. He looks directly at the viewer. The paintings work with each other to evoke a yin-yang effect of light and dark, morning and evening, clear and misty weather.

Kosugi Hōan, who worked in both Western and Japanese styles, reworked the age-old theme into a modern, atmospheric painting using washes to create a fantastical, dreamy effect. Just before creating this evocative diptych on a Chinese painting theme, the artist traveled to the lush river region of Hunan Province in 1916, after which he produced ink paintings evocative of traditional Chinese styles, as here. In his later years, he lived as a semi-recluse in a mountain village near Nikko, where there is now a museum preserving works from every stage of his career.