Tenjin (Sugawara no Michizane) with an ox

The teachings and imagery of Zen Buddhism had a profound impact on Japanese religious beliefs and practice during the Kamakura and Muromachi periods. In this painting, the deified Japanese scholar and government official Sugawara no Michizane (845-903), known posthumously as Tenjin (heavenly deity), is represented walking beside an ox. The image alludes to the Zen Buddhist allegory of an ox and herdsman who illustrate the process of seeking and attaining enlightenment. Michizane was a court official whose unjust death in exile led to widespread worship of him to assuage his angry spirit. Elements of both Shinto and Buddhist belief coexisted in Tenjin worship. In his Zen Buddhist association, the literary accomplishments of Michizane as a poet in the Chinese language were praised; a fourteenth-century legend maintained that Tenjin had miraculously crossed the sea to China to study Zen Buddhism, and there had been taught by a Chinese master and presented with a Buddhist robe. Here he is dressed in a white Japanese court garment, holding a branch of blossoming plum, an emblem of his literary accomplishments.

The work exhibits an unusual combination of painting styles, suggesting that a painter trained in the meticulous style prevalent at the imperial court had also seen and copied new styles of ink painting that came from China to Zen Buddhist monasteries. The rendering of the ox in ink washes reflects knowledge of this Chinese style, while the figure is rendered with the precision and technical finesse of traditional Japanese court painting.