Painting by a
Japanese artist, late 16th century
Jūgyūzu (Ten Oxherding Pictures)
Horizontal scroll by an unknown Japanese
painter of the late 16th century; (24.2 × 111 cm)
The New York Public Library: "Spencer Collection"
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/
The scenes are
enclosed within fan-shaped borders that occasionaly overlap in a decorative
manner to create the impression of scattered fan-paintings. This
Momoyama-period (1573-1615) work, painted in ink monochrome with a combination
of calligraphic, modulated brushstrokes and wash, was in all likelihood made by
an artist outside of the temple milieu rather than a monk-painter (hence its
incorrect sequence of episodes and the inclusion of the ox in Scene Seven.)
stages are out of order; stage 4
illustrated twice; stage 9 is missing
stage 2, stage 3
stage 6, stage 4, stage
5
stage 7, stage 4, stage
1
stage 8, stage 10
Jyugyu Zu (The Ten Oxherding Pictures)
Second half of the sixteenth century, Momoyama period
By an artist of the Kano school
One handscroll, ink on paper
H: 24.2 cm, L: 111.0 cm
Spencer no. 52
Murase, Miyeko. Tales of Japan: Scrolls and Prints from the New York Public Library, 1986, pp. 49-52.
The opening scenes of this handscroll, The Ten Oxherding Pictures, or Jyugyu-Z, depict a young oxherd and his ox in a rustic setting, and evoke thoughts of a simple, country life. However, the last two scenes, which represent a rotund, smiling Hotei (Pu-tai in Chinese)1 holding a fan, and an empty circle (scenes 9 and 10), suggest that the subject of the scroll has deeper meaning. The scoll illustrates, in fact, the Ten Oxherding Songs, a Zen (Ch’an in Chinese) Buddhist parable in which the progressive stages of an indi¬ vidual’s approach to Enlightenment are linked allegorically to an oxherd’s search for his run-away ox.2 Arranged as though to suggest fans mounted on a handscroll, the ten scenes are actually painted within fan-shaped areas left blank in the large expanse of ink which covers the length of the scroll. The individual compositions are rendered in monochrome, and executed with a combination of crisp, expressive brushstrokes and areas of soft wash which attest to the artist’s mastery of the ink painting technique.
In these scenes, intended to express the essence of Zen Buddhism, the oxherd rep¬ resents Everyman, while the ox symbolizes the True Self, or Buddha Nature. In the parable, the boy and the ox start out as separate entities. As the boy progresses toward Enlightenment, their separation is diminished, little by little, and eventually the two are brought together, their unity in the Absolute symbolized by the circle of nothingness at the end of the scroll. Allegories such as the Ten Oxherding Songs were used by Zen masters to instruct their disciples. It was believed that such parables, meant to explain the increasing degrees of awareness preceding the enlightened state, might actually help a disciple achieve Enlightenment itself.
Many versions of the Ten Oxherding Songs were composed, the earliest during the eleventh century.3 These drew on koan (kung-an in Chinese) and other allegorical tales about cows and oxen recorded in Zen literature of the T’ang dynasty (618-906).4 The tales, in turn, were probably inspired by the literature of ancient India.5
The most popular Chinese version was written by the Ch’an master P’u-ming (ca. a.d. 1050).6 The ten progressive states of Enlightenment are represented in this work by a gradual transformation of the ox’s color from black to white. Another version, written by the Ch’an master Kuo-an (ca. a.d. 1150) was introduced to Japan where it became extremely popular. The woodcut illustrations which accompanied Kuo-an’s text were often reprinted in Japan and served as models for at least one other known painted version of the Ten Oxherding Songs, now in the collection of the Shokokuji in Kyoto.8
Although the sequence of the episodes is incorrect, the scenes represented in the Spencer scroll were based on the iconographic tradition established by the illustrations of the Kuo-an verson.
The Spencer scroll has been linked with the name of Kano Motonobu (1476-1558), one of the leading masters of the Kano school during the late Muromachi period, primarily because of a seal, placed at the end of the scroll, which resembles one used by Motonobu. However, this seal was also used by later Kano artists, and the scroll is closer stylistically to works by Kano school painters who lived a generation or two after Motonobu.
Vigorous drawings in ink, often using short, staccato strokes on drapery folds and foliages, convey the lively drama of the story. They also reflect the most popular style of ink painting in the late sixteenth century—expecially among the artists of the Kano school, including the anonymous artist of this scroll. The original text and translation have been published by several scholars, all of whom have contributed to a better understanding of the symbolism in the Spencer handscroll.9 The summary quoted below, by Heinrich Dumoulin, is used both for its brevity and clarity. The numbers correspond to the sequence of events in the original Kuo-an version.
1. (Scene 6 of the Spencer scroll.) The oxherd has lost his ox and stands alone on the vast pasture; but can the human being lose his Self?
2. (Scene 5 of the Spencer scroll.) He searches and catches sight of the tracks of the ox; there is a mediatory assistance, in which religious things like sutras and mon¬ asteries also play a part.
3. (Scene 4 of the Spencer scroll.) Following the tracks, he finds the ox; but this is still a distant, intellectual knowledge or intuition of the ox.
4. (Scene 2 and 7 of the Spencer scroll.) With fervent effort he tames the beast. . . .
5. (Scene 1 of the Spencer scroll.) . . . and sets it out to pasture under careful sur¬ veillance. These two stages (4 and 5) comprise practice in the Zen hall, the severe and painful practice until Enlightenment is grasped.
6. (Scene 3 of the Spencer scroll.) The practitioner finds complete certainty; the oxherd straddles the back of the ox and rides home triumphantly. . . . Now the two have become one; the oxherd in his freedom no longer has the need for the “ox” and forgets it.
7. (Scene 8 of the Spencer scroll.) The oxherd stands alone with the ox.
8. (Scene 10 of the Spencer scroll.) Now both the oxherd and ox have disappeared in the securing, embracing nothingness of a circle.
9. (Missing from the Spencer scroll.) When the oxherd reappears, everything around him is just as it is—the everyday life of the enlightened one.
10.(Scene 9 of the Spencer scroll.) And the oxherd enters the town and the marketplace and bestows goodness on all about him. The enlightened one lives with his fellow human beings and lives like them, but the benevolence he radiates has its source in his enlightenment.
NOTES
1. Hotei is believed to have been an incarnation of the Buddha of the k uture, Miroku (Maitreya in Sanskrit).
2. For background information about Zen Buddhism, see Heinrich Dumoulin, A History of Zen Buddhism (New York, 1963).
3. Jan Fontein and Money Hickman, Zen Painting and Calligraphy (Boston, 1970), p. 113.
4. See, for example, Ching-te chuang-teng-lu (.A Record on Transmission of the Lamp) by lao-yuan, dating to a.d. 1004, published in Taisho Shinshu Daizokyo, vol. 51, ed. I akakusu Junjiro and VVatanabe Kaigyoku (Tokyo, 1928) no. 2078, pp. 204—467.
5. For example, Daisetz T. Suzuki described an early Hinayana text which is parallel to the Ten Oxherding Songs. This sutra, entitled On the Herding of Cattle, explains in allegorical terms the eleven things required of a monk to be considered an exemplary Buddhist. See Daisetz T. Suzuki, Essays in Zen Buddhism (First Series) (London, 1927), p. 355.
6. Fontein and Hickman, Zen Painting, p. 116. Published in Shibayama Zenkei, Jyugyii Zu, (Tokyo, 1954), pp. 17-82.
7. The earliest republished print inJapan may date to 1325. See Fontein and Hickman, Zen Painting, p. 116. Kuo-an version published in Shibayama, Jyugyu Zu, pp. 83-124.
8. Published by Fontein and Hickman, Zen Painting, pp. 113-118, and described as “attributed to Shubun.” Japanese scholars, however, usually attribute the Shokokuji scroll to Kano Motonobu or give it a slightly later date. Another painted version of the Ten Oxherding Pictures, which is dated by inscription to 1278, has come to light and has been published by Shimbo Toru in “Shinshutsu no Koan-bon Jugyu Zukan (Recently Discovered Paintings Depicting Zen Enlightenment Known as the Koan Version Scroll of Jugyu Zu),” Bukkyo Geijustu, no. 96 (May 1974), pp. 74-77.
9. See Fontein and Hickman, Zen Painting, pp. 113-118; Suzuki, Essays, pp. 347-366; M.H. Trevor, The Ox and His Herdsman (Tokyo, 1969); Sylvan Barnet and William Burto, Zen Ink Paintings (Tokyo, 1982); and Heinrich Dumoulin, Zen Enlightenment: Origins and Meaning (New York and Tokyo, 1979), pp. 154—156.
