Gasankō 画讃稿

FSC-GR-780.62.1-2

Commentary by Sherry D. Fowler

Posted September 23, 2016

The Edo-period Rinzai Zen Buddhist patriarch Hakuin Ekaku had a reputation as a rigorous teacher who tolerated neither laziness nor false practitioners. He is also well known for his prolific output of deceptively simple, yet humorous, ink paintings of Zen subjects, especially those of Bodhidharma (J. Daruma 達磨), the first patriarch of Zen (Ch. Chan) Buddhism, who is said to have come from India to China in the fifth century. Although the two-volume Gasankō (Book of illustrations and poems) closely follows Hakuin’s style, it was not actually created by him. The artist and literatus Kawamura Minsetsu, who wrote about Hakuin in the book’s preface, was probably the illustrator of this collection of reinterpretations of Hakuin’s popular images.

The first of the six illustrations of Bodhidharma that are included in both volumes recreates Hakuin’s characteristic single thick, sweeping brushstroke to suggest the patriarch’s shoulder and robe. All of the Bodhidharma images included here portray the patriarch’s recognizable glaring eyes, bushy brows, and scraggly beard that punctuate his facial features. The delightful rendition of another Buddhist figure, Hotei 布袋 (one of the Seven Deities of Good Fortune), toward the end of volume two shows him as a street entertainer balancing a cup on the end of a long pole held in his mouth while he stands on his sack. Curiously, Hakuin’s famous kōan "What is the sound of one hand clapping?"—often illustrated as Hotei raising one hand—is not included in the book. In addition to the playful portrayals of other popular religious figures, such as Jurōjin (寿老人, another of the Seven Deities of Good Fortune), Tenjin (天神), Otafuku (お多福), and Kannon (観音), Gasankō contains depictions of plants, animals, and symbolic inanimate objects, such as a mallet, a large bag, and a rod.

Kawamura lived in Edo’s Katsushika district. His most celebrated work, the illustrated book Hyaku Fuji (FSC-GR-780.291.1-4), shows diverse views of Mount Fuji. This book was issued in 1767, thus predating Katsushika Hokusai’s famous treatments of the subject by more than fifty years that included works such as Fugaku hyakkei (FSC-GR-780.246.1-3). It is possible that Minsetsu had the opportunity to meet Hakuin and discuss the Gasankō project with him since the book was published during the master’s lifetime.　

Selected readings

Stephen Addiss, The Art of Zen: Paintings and Calligraphy by Japanese Monks, 1600–1925 (New York: H. N. Abrams, 1989).

Iso Hiroshi 磯博, “Kawamura Minsetsu no Hyaku Fuji to Hokusai no Fuji gake zu,” 「河村岷雪の『百富士』と北斎の富嶽図」, Bigaku ronkyū 美学論究 9 (September 1961), 67–84.

Takeuchi Naoji 竹内尚次, “‘Hakuin Oshō jigasanshū’ to Tōrei Oshō kakiire ‘Keisō dokuzui’ oyobi Kōshū junshaku sankaji ni tsuite,” 「『白隠和尚自画賛集』と東嶺和尚書入『荊叢毒蕊』および甲州巡錫三ケ寺について」, Shūkyōgaku ronshū 宗教学論集 14 (March 1988), 161–84.

Katsuhiro Yoshizawa and Norman Waddell, The Religious Art of Zen Master Hakuin (Berkeley: Counterpoint, 2009).

Copies in other collections
Kagawa University Library, Takamatsu City