Portrait of Gaofeng Yuanmiao, 1238-1295

Paintings of this type are known as chinzo, a special term given to portraits of Zen (Chinese: Ch'an) priests. The sitter is the Chinese priest Kao-feng Yuan-miao (1239-1295), the twenty-eighth patriarch in the direct line of succession from the first Patriarch, Bodhidharma, the founder of the Ch'an school of Buddhism in China.

The highly individualistic features, which include bushy hair, moustache, goatee as well as the wide-opened, fiery eyes and the long finger nails, convey something of the priest's inner strength. The prototypical portrait painted in China in 1290, five years before Kao-feng Yuan-miao's death, was brought to Japan in 1346, and still is preserved at the Houn-ji, Ibaragi prefecture. In the early portrait, however, Kao-feng is depicted in a full-length seated posture, facing right. The half-bust format of the Freer portrait may indicate that it belonged to a groups of portraits of patriarchs known as ressozo.

The Freer portrait was painted by Chu'an Shinko of the Kencho-ji, who was active during the middle of the fifteenth century. Two seals above the left shoulder of Kao-feng are those of the artist's. The square relief seal reads "Chu'an," and the tripod relief seal reads "Shinko."