Zen Buddhism 9

1) In Aviman’s “Introduction,” she describes several contentious perspectives

surrounding scholarly approaches to the study of Zen paintings. What connections

does she make between the “romanticized” perception of Zen and approaches to “Zen

art”? In her outline of the purpose of her own book (p. 7), she describes how she

intends to break away from these earlier, romantic approaches. In your survey of her 

chapter titles (also p. 7), what new “narratives” do you expect Aviman to introduce

surrounding the work of Hakuin and Sengai?

2) After reading the short paragraph on formal and stylistic analysis, answer the

questions in light of your viewing experience of the Huineng painting linked above:

What captures your attention first. What other elements do you then see. What mood

or emotion do you feel? Can you explain your observations and emotional responses?

In other words, which formal aspects of the work of art direct the movements of your

eyes and encourage you to feel a certain way? Finally, why is this feeling

communicative?

Huineng Painting Analysis:

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/weai/exeas/resources/buddhist-art-east-
asia.html#FormalAnalysis

Introduction: Playing with Words and Images

This book explores the free attitude and the playfulness reflected in the
artwork of the two prominent Japanese Zen monk-painters from the Edo
period (1600–1868)—Hakuin Ekaku 白隠慧鶴 (1685–1768) and Sengai Gibon
仙厓義梵 (1750–1837). The particular evolution of Zen paintings during the
Edo period, including the artwork of Hakuin and Sengai, is usually referred
to as Zenga (禅画; lit. Zen paintings). These paintings are in fact part of a
long tradition of Zen ink painting that began following the importation of Zen
Buddhism from China at the beginning of the Kamakura period (1185–1333).
Zenga is usually referred to as the revival of the early Zen painting of the
Kamakura and early Muromachi periods (1333–1573), though in some aspects
Zenga differs from those paintings, particularly from those of the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries.

The free attitude reflected in the paintings is one of the qualities that
distinguish Zenga from Zen paintings of earlier periods. This book strives to
understand the nature of this particular expression and to identify its sources,
focusing on the lives of the monk-painters and their artwork. The emphasis
is on the powerful interaction and the close collaboration that exists between
words and images in the paintings.

The aim of the book, thus, is not primarily philosophical or religious
discussion of freedom, but rather an exploration of this expression in the
artwork through a multifaceted approach, one that combines a holistic analysis
of the paintings—i.e. as interrelated combination of text and image—with a
contextualization of the works within the specific historical, art historical,
cultural, social and political environments in which they were created.

ZEN PAINTINGS IN EDo JAPAN (1600–1868)2

Freedom In Context

The word freedom is a highly charged word with various meanings, depending
on the cultural and historical context in which it is used. Hence it is important
to clarify the specific meaning and context of the word in this book. When I
speak of freedom I point to a fundamental notion in the Chan/Zen Buddhist
traditions. It is important to specify this particular notion precisely due to the
specific meaning it carries in the Chan and Zen traditions and as opposed to
the way it was understood by early Western interpreters of Zen. Being part of
the critical scrutiny against the idealized images of Chan/Zen Buddhism, Dale
Wright in his book Philosophical Meditations on Zen Buddhism1 dedicates a whole
chapter to the concept of freedom, including the way it was misinterpreted by
early Western scholars and students of Zen. As Wright argues, in accordance
with the modern Western version of “freedom” and through the eyes and
spirit of the time of early Western interpreters, freedom was regarded and
understood as the absence of constraint, presupposing a tension between
freedom and authority. As Wright puts it, “Modern western thought has
tended to place freedom and obedience in a dichotomous relation.”2 Although
Wright focuses mostly on John Blofeld’s (1913–1987) writings on Zen, he
speaks about the general tendency in early western Zen literature “from
the ‘Beat Zen’ of Jack Kerouac to the more academic style of [Alan] Watts
and [Erich] Fromm, but also, and more influentially, in the English language
writings of D.T Suzuki who drew upon Western proclivities in introducing
Zen to the west.”3 Below I will return to the “romantic” approach to Chan/Zen
traditions and its influence on modern research on Zenga. A fuller discussion
of Western interpretations of freedom in contrast to the Chan/Zen notion,
based largely on the formulation provided by Dale Wright, will be conducted
in chapter three of the book. At this point, it is important to emphasize that
“freedom” in Chan/Zen traditions is referred to in various ways: liberation of
mind, emancipation, “letting go,” enlightenment and so on, terms which all
attempt to transmit a broad view that I will refer to in this book as an attitude
or even mentality of freedom.

As mentioned above, while philosophical and religious discussions of the
concept of freedom are not the main concern of this book, these will serve as
a background and a means to deepen our understanding of the expression of
freedom as reflected in the artwork discussed herein.

Thus, when I speak of the expression of freedom and playfulness in the
paintings of Hakuin and Sengai, I refer to the way this is reflected in both
the formalistic aspects of the paintings and in their content. In other words, I
focus on the looseness of the lines, composition, strokes and so on, together
with exploring the themes, texts and narratives of the paintings that express
the notion of freedom.

INTRoDUCTIoN 3

My claim is that this expression is not merely a reflection of the artistic
style of the monk-painters, but it is in fact part of an entire outlook on
freedom deeply rooted in the thought of Zen Buddhism. This general attitude
significantly affected both the lives and the artwork of the monk-painters, and
it is imbued in the artwork in a way that it is expressed through both text and
image.

At the base of the attitude of freedom stands the breaking of rules,
conventions and conceptions. For Hakuin and Sengai, Zen practitioners who
were both monks and painters, this breaking of rules is expressed in both
aspects of their lives, the religious and artistic worlds. Thus, when I speak
of freedom of expression in their artwork, I mostly refer to the breaking of
the rules and conventions of Zen Buddhist tradition, which includes the Zen
ink painting tradition. However, as I will show, this free attitude at times
transcends the specific context of the Zen Buddhist world, and is manifested
also through breaking the rules and conventions of the general artistic
standards that dominated during the Edo period. This occasionally included
the breaking of political rules and standards of this period. When I speak of
“expression of freedom,” therefore, I mean a breaking of the religious, artistic,
social and even political rules, conventions and conceptions dominant during
the Edo period.

As Zen monks, Hakuin and Sengai were part of the Rinzai Zen Buddhist
tradition and were obviously familiar with Rinzai Zen texts and stories. Many
of the stories and sayings of this tradition were transferred orally by Zen
masters to their disciples while others were written down. In either case these
stories became part of the tradition and undoubtedly influenced the artwork
of both Hakuin and Sengai.

Several prominent Rinzai Zen texts that present the attitude of freedom
most clearly will be presented here. Rather than discuss the contents of these
texts separately, I have integrated this discussion with an analysis of the
artwork. This will allow a close identification of the concept of freedom in
Rinzai Zen Buddhism with the artwork of both Hakuin and Sengai.

The main and most important source of this book, however, is the artwork
of Hakuin and Sengai. With three exceptions, where I use pieces of their
calligraphy to support my ideas, I base my analyses on paintings that include
both an image and an inscription within the painting.

Both Hakuin and Sengai at some point in their lives were engaged in artistic
activities; nevertheless, they were not professional artists. From a young age
they devoted themselves to the religious path—they were primarily monks.
Indeed, both became abbots of famous Rinzai Zen temples. Their true painting
period began only at a late age, in their sixties, and they continued to paint
until their deaths. The viewers of Hakuin and Sengai’s paintings were Zen
monks, disciples, laymen and common people who were in contact with the

ZEN PAINTINGS IN EDo JAPAN (1600–1868)4

monk-painters. often the paintings were given by them as presents. This fact
that the viewers of the artwork were not anonymous but were all related in
some way, religiously or secularly, to the world of the Zen temple, had an
effect on the creations of these monk-painters. When Hakuin and Sengai
painted they often knew, or could assume, who their target viewers were: a
small circle of people who were familiar with the world of Zen in one way or
another, and therefore their paintings were created accordingly.

Among Zenga painters, Hakuin and Sengai’s works are particularly
eminent. Their artwork constitutes the largest and the most representative
collection of Zenga from the Edo period. It has also been the most influential
both among other Zenga painters in Japan and in the West. The themes of
their paintings are often traditional, similar to those of early Zen paintings of
the Kamakura and Muromachi periods. At the same time, secular themes also
appear, as do those which are the monk-painters’ own creations.

The works of art presented in this book are the paintings that I consider to
best represent the Hakuin and Sengai’s expression of freedom, even though
we can generally say that the expression of freedom characterizes most of
their paintings. The paintings I have selected display a variety of themes, from
traditional to completely original. Some are secular in theme and strongly
connected with the social, cultural and political contexts of the Edo period,
while others are more religious and more closely connected with Rinzai Zen
Buddhist thought and traditions.

Hakuin and Sengai’s biographies serve as a significant source of
information for this book, as well. I have used their biographies, first of all, as
the foundation for understanding their religious and artistic worlds, together
with an understanding of the role each world played in their lives. They are
also used as sources of information on the monk-painters’ personalities via
stories, important events and significant decisions they made during their
lives. The biographies also provide us with some poems and other writings
created by the monk-painters.4

new Perspectives in Research on Zenga

The critical approach to Chan/Zen Buddhist studies of scholars such as Dale
Wright, Bernard Faure, Robert H. Sharf, T. Griffith Foulk and so forth,5 which
has questioned the traditional understanding of Chan/Zen and criticized
the romanticized and idealized images of these traditions, includes criticism
on the way the “Zen Arts” have been presented and approached, especially
by Suzuki Daisetsu and Hisamatsu Shinichi. Sharf, for example, criticizes
the way in which the “Zen Arts” were put under one category: “Hisamatsu
shares with Suzuki the dubious honor of popularizing the notion that Zen
is the foundation of virtually all of the Japanese fine arts … everything from

INTRoDUCTIoN 5

Chinese landscape painting and calligraphy to garden design and Noh drama
are expressions of the Zen experience.”6 Levine adds an art historical critique
of the mystical readings of visual forms that characterized Suzuki’s “Zen Art”
and goes on to criticize Hisamatsu’s approach, which grants exclusivity to
those who have attained Zen religious realization in seeing and understanding
“Zen Art.”7

This general tendency, presented above, to “romanticize” Zen and “Zen
Art” had an effect also on the research of Zenga. The important questions
need to be raised here: How did this approach affect the way in which the
paintings were treated? Even more, were there other voices that brought new
perspectives to this research?

Significant interest in Zenga in the United States and Europe began after
the Second World War. This was part of a general wave of interest in Japan
and in Zen Buddhism in particular. In Japan at that time, Zenga were still
not honored and appreciated as much as the early Zen ink painting of the
Muromachi period, which was greatly admired for its highly skilled artists.
Zenga, it seems, was considered to be outside the mainstream of Japanese
paintings during the Edo period. Starting from the 1960s and 1970s, the
growing interest in Zen in the United States and in Europe led to an increasing
number of books on Zen, Zen art and Zen culture, including Zenga, written
by both Japanese and non-Japanese authors.8

This new wave of works on Zenga is highly valuable for having opened
a new window for an understanding of Zenga and for expanding the
knowledge and appreciation of this art form in Japan, the United States and
Europe. At the same time, it is important to recognize, as I argue, that the
circumstances in which research on Zenga first developed greatly affected the
nature of research in later years, and led to its being shaped in a limited way.
Due to the fact that in many cases the paintings were approached merely as a
means to deepen an understanding of Zen Buddhism and its principles, they
were analyzed mostly iconographically. Furthermore, in many cases the work
done on Zenga took the form of exhibition catalogues, which naturally did
not allow for in-depth discussion of the paintings, and which caused some
paintings to remained virtually untouched by analysis, simply appearing in
catalogues with no further treatment.

It is generally acknowledged that one of the pioneers in dealing with
Zenga was Kurt Brasch, a Swiss scholar who was born in Japan and wrote
two books, published in German and in Japanese: Hakuin and Zenga (1957)
and Zenga (1962).9 Around the time of publication of these works Brasch
organized a traveling exhibition on Zenga, which was shown for a year (1959–
60) in several European cities. It is important to note, however, that the term
“Zenga” had been used several decades earlier in an article on Hakuin and
his works published by the Japanese writer and Buddhist scholar okamoto
Kanoko 岡本かの子(1889–1939).10 Thus, while Kurt Brasch is certainly one of

ZEN PAINTINGS IN EDo JAPAN (1600–1868)6

the pioneers of Zenga scholarship in the West, the term itself existed prior to
his works.

During the 1960s and 1970s, several important works were published on
Zenga. In addition to being one of the first works to reclaim the term Zenga,
Kurt Brasch’s work is also significant for the criticism it aroused, mainly
concerning the usage of the term itself.11 This criticism was frequent, especially
among Japanese authors. Takeuchi Naoji’s criticism, for example, focuses on
the term Zenga, which he argues had served the paintings poorly by treating
them as a popular product. Instead, he suggested calling them “the art of the
Zen sect” or “the ink painting of the Zen sect” and not “the paintings of Zen,”12
as Zen in fact has no paintings. At the same time, Kurt Brasch’s work can also
be viewed as stimulating other Japanese authors to write on Zen paintings,
while embracing the new interest in Zen paintings coming from outside
Japan. Works such as Awakawa Yasuichi’s Zen Painting, Hisamatsu Shinichi’s
Zen and the Fine Arts, and Suzuki Daisetsu’s Sengai: The Zen Master, are some
of the most prominent examples.13 Whatever the reaction of Japanese scholars
described above, there was no major change in perspective. Research still
focused on the iconography of the paintings, out of a single-minded attempt
to understand their religious meaning, while giving importance to questions
that deal with the essence of Zen through these paintings, such as What are
Zen paintings? Is “Zenga” a proper term? and so forth. Furthermore, these
last works, present in many ways the idealized, romantic and “pure” view of
Zen Buddhism mentioned above. The paintings, as a result, were treated from
a one-sided angle: out of the single attempt to promote the spirit and thought
of Zen. Borrowing Levine’s critique of Suzuki’s approach to the Zen art of
painting: “Suzuki didn’t do the hard looking and archival digging needed
to sense the visual and historical warp and weft of specific paintings, styles,
and painters. Instead of letting the paintings recount their own stories, Suzuki
gave them all the same tale to tell.”14

Interest in Zenga continued during the 1980s until the mid-1990s.15 A real
change in perspective towards an art historical approach, however, began to
take place with the publication in 1989 of the important book The Art of Zen,
written by Stephen Addiss.16 In 1995, Izumi Takeo and Mizukami Tsutomu
published a volume dedicated solely to Hakuin and Sengai’s artwork, as
part of a series on ink painting masters called Suibokuga no kyoshō. This later
research on Zenga began to put the paintings and the monk-painters at the
center of its attention. It also allowed, at least in some cases, for the integration
of a discussion of form and content.

This beginning of a change in perspective did not, however, continue
to develop and remained confined largely to exhibition catalogues and
introductory textbooks—formats that limited the ability to offer in-depth
discussion of the paintings. From the mid-1990s until the present the number
of books written on Zenga has decreased.17

INTRoDUCTIoN 7

The most recent significant book on Hakuin’s artwork was Yoshizawa
Katsuhiro’s Hakuin—Zenga no sekai, published in 2005 and translated into
English in 2009 under the title The Religious Art of Zen Master Hakuin.18
Although the book explores the religious meaning of Hakuin’s artwork and
therefore does not utilize an art historical perspective, it analyzes the paintings
through the innovative approach of taking into consideration the historical
and cultural contexts of the Edo period in which the paintings were created.19

  

As shown, a great need to study Zenga from different perspectives still
remains. The lacuna, however, is not merely methodological; although the
concept of freedom is an issue of considerable importance in Zen Buddhism,
no in-depth research has yet been undertaken on the reflection of this free
attitude in the lives and artwork of Edo period Zen monk-painters, such
as Hakuin and Sengai. It is hard to tell why the visual expression of this
fundamental attitude of freedom was never profoundly examined; perhaps
it is connected to the early approach of the research which regarded the
paintings as expressions of the “Zen thought” as a whole, without the attempt
to unravel this idea through the option of isolating one notion and examine it
profoundly, as I suggest in this book.

This book thus undertakes an in-depth investigation into varied
manifestations of the visual expression of freedom from a multitude of
perspectives: by focusing on the paintings, especially the interconnection of
texts and images, as well as the biographies and writings of the monk-painters
themselves—all set against the historical, social and cultural background of
the Edo period.

To build an investigation that tackles the expression of freedom from
different angles, I have organized the present study into six chapters that build
the discussion gradually. Chapter 1, “Evolution Towards Zen Paintings in the
Edo Period,” covers first the historical development of Zen paintings and later
examines Hakuin and Sengai’s paintings and the expression of freedom in the
specific historical context in which these paintings were created during the
Edo period. I review the historical evolution of Zen painting from its early
stages during the Kamakura and the Muromachi periods up to the specific
emergence of Zenga during the Edo period, followed by a short review of the
lives of the monk-painters. Chapter 2, “An Independent Artistic Language,”
focuses on the expression of freedom in the paintings of Hakuin and Sengai
solely through analysis of the visual components and the formal aspects of
the paintings. The first part deals with the development and change that
Hakuin and Sengai’s artwork underwent, showing how the expression of
freedom in their paintings changed as they aged. The second part examines

ZEN PAINTINGS IN EDo JAPAN (1600–1868)8

the relationship of Hakuin and Sengai’s artwork with the tradition of Zen ink
painting, showing in what ways the monk-painters continue the tradition and
in what ways they are free and independent of it.

The next chapters of the book analyze the expression of freedom and
its manifestations, via both text and image, approaching these through a
synthesis of all aspects, including historical, cultural and art historical ones.
Chapter 3, “Liberation from Rules,” begins by tracing the roots of the concept
of freedom in the thought of Rinzai Zen Buddhism through various related
Zen texts and continues with an analysis of selected paintings by Hakuin
and Sengai that express this notion of freedom. Chapter 4, “Letting Go of
Common Conceptions,” deals with the expression of freedom through the
liberated approach of Hakuin and Sengai towards some of our common
conceptions. Chapter 5, “Emancipation from Social Conventions,” deals with
the freedom towards social conventions Hakuin and Sengai expressed in their
paintings. In both chapters 4 and 5, matters that at first glance seem unrelated
to freedom are revealed to be alternative manifestations of this attitude. In
chapter 6, “Humor as an Expression of Freedom,” the last and concluding
chapter, I focus on humor in the paintings and on its relation to the attitude
of freedom. Humor is shown to be an artistic tool or an artistic style but at the
same time an expression and a manifestation of freedom itself.

notes

1 The chapter is entitled “Freedom: the Practice of Constraint”; Wright,
Philosophical Meditations, 119–38. For a fuller discussion of this topic see chapter
3 of the present work. See also Wright, “Concept of Freedom,” 113–24. See also
Faure, “Chan and Zen Studies,” 1–35.

2 Wright, Philosophical Meditations, 128.

3 Wright, Philosophical Meditations, 124 fn. 18.

4 For short biographies of the monk-painters, see chapter 1.

5 For state-of-the-field reports see Faure, “Chan and Zen Studies,” 1–35; Robson
“Formation and Fabrication,” 311–49. on critical Buddhism see also Shields,
Critical Buddhism, 1–16.

6 Sharf, “Zen of Japanese Nationalism,” 107–60. For another critical scrutiny by
Robert Sharf with T. Griffith Foulk on chinzō see Sharf and Foulk, “Ritual Use of
Ch’an Portraiture,” 74–150.

7 Levine, “Two (or More) Truths,” 52–61. For a critical scrutiny of other forms
of art related to Zen in Japan see: Yamada, Shots in the Dark. See also Elkins,
“Conceptual Analysis of Gardens,” 189–98. See also Sharf, “Zen of Japanese
Nationalism,” 107–60 on Brinker, Zen in the Art of Painting.

INTRoDUCTIoN 9

8 See Addiss, “Reflections on Zenga,” 14–18. See also Guth, “Nanga and Zenga,”
203–11.

9 See Yamashita, “Reconsidering ‘Zenga,’” 19–28. See also Brasch, “Zenga, Zen
Buddhist Paintings,” 58–63.

10 okamoto, “Hakuin no Gazen ni Tsuite,” 465–72. See also Yoshizawa, Hakuin—
Zenga no sekai, 17.

11 See also the exhibition catalogue Addiss, Zenga and Nanga.

12 In Japanese, zenrin bijutsu (禅林美術 ; arts of the Zen sect) or zenrin suibokuga
(禅林水墨画 ; Zen sect ink painting). Takeuchi, Nihon bijutsu, 14.

13 For full details, see bibliography. See also Suzuki—Zen and Japanese Culture.
Tsuji Nobuo’s book from this same period, Edo no shūkyō bijutsu, is notable for
its art historical approach, studying both form and content equally. It should
therefore be regarded as exceptional in relation to previous research.

14 Levine, “Two (or More) Truths,” 55–6.

15 In the early eighties the collected works of Furuta Shōkin were published; they
included essays on Zen art and on Hakuin and Sengai. He also wrote Sengai—
Master of Zen Paintings, which follows the earlier approach. For full details,
see bibliography.

16 A year later, an exhibition catalogue of the important Gitter-Yelen collection,
with introduction and commentaries by John Stevens, Zenga Brushstrokes of
Enlightenment, was published. See also Nakayama Kiichirō’s book Sengai—sono
shōgai to geijutsu. For full details, see bibliography.

17 There were several exhibition catalogues: the catalogues Zenga—The Return
from America (2000), which presents some critical views on the field such as
Yamashita Yuji’s article “Reconsidering ‘Zenga’–In Terms of America, in Terms
of Japanese Art History.” For another catalogue exhibition see: Hakuin: Zen to
Shouga (2004). A recent exhibition catalogue on Hakuin’s paintings in English
is The sound of one hand (2010) written by Addiss and Yoshiko Seo. A recent
exhibition catalogue on Hakuin’s paintings in Japanese written by Yamashita
and Yoshizawa is: Hakuin—The Hidden Message of Zen Art (2012);
see bibliography.

18 The translation is by Norman Waddell. For full details see bibliography.

19 A recent paper by Yoshizawa is published in Kokka 1379 (2010), in a special issue
dedicated to Hakuin; see bibliography.