Artist: unknown
Title: Shigesan Engi scroll I:
Material: ink and color paper.
Site: Chogosonshi-ji, Mount Shige (Nara).
Current Location: Tokugawa Museum.
Period/Date: Heian Jidai, ca. 1170s.
Artist: unknown
Title: Shigisan Engi scroll I,The merchant asks to be pardoned and if he can have his grain back
Site: Chogosonshi-ji, Mount Shigi (Nara).
Current Location: Tokugawa Museum.
Period/Date: Heian Jidai, ca. 1170s.
Iconography/Iconology: Engi, or the founding story of a Buddhist monastery, became an extremely popular type of narrative in the successive period of Japanese history. The story of the founding of the temple, Chogosonshi-ji, on top of Mount Shigi is one of the earliest examples of this style of painting. The narative maintains that the monk, Myoren, who founded the monastery sends his begging bowl down to the village everyday to receive food in the form of alms from the villagers. The bowl flies down to the village miraculously, collects the gifts and flies back up to Mount Shigi. Everyday, a wealthy merchant sends back the bowl, full of rice, which helps sustain the monk. One day, growing tired of this daily routine, the merchant refuses to provide the rice. Upon seeing this, the magic bowl decides to teach the greedy merchant a lesson and instead of flying back with just a bowl of rice, it picks up the merchant's entire storehouse and carries it to monk Myoren. This causes great anxiety among the the villagers who depend on the merchant for their food. So, the merchant and the villagers go to Mount Shige, accept their folly and ask to be pardoned. Monk Myoren then pardons them and magically sends all the bales of rice flying back to the village, but for reasons unlear in the narrative, keeps the empty storehouse for himself.
The scene above shows the moment when the bowl decides to pick up the storehouse and fly back to the mountain monastery. Having to witness this miraculous event, the villagers are seen in a state of excited frenzy.
Stylistic Comments: In contrast to the so-called "female style," or the "Genji style" of painting, this scroll is depicted in the so-called "male style," or "Shigisan-engi style." This style is characterized by the predominant use of line drawing to delineate figures and architectural elements. As against the thickly layered paint of the "Genji style," the Shigisan-engi artists use light washes. The figures in the Sigisan-engi scroll are shown laughing, screaming and gaping, which sharply contrast the mask-like, conventionalized faces of the Genji figures. The excitement of the sccence is suggested through the animated gestures of the figures.
