Guanyin and Attendant, Chen Xian; Jifei

Exhibition Label: "Compassionate Beings: Japanese Buddhist Art," Sep-2009, Kris Ercums Chen Xian, a Zen Buddhist monk of the Obaku sect, specialized in painting. Although he remained in Fujian, China when the leaders of the sect immigrated to Japan, many of his works were carried to Nagasaki and later to Mampuku-ji (near Kyoto), headquarters of the Obaku sect of Zen Buddhism. His paintings often bear inscriptions by Ingen, Mokuan, and Jifei (Sokuhi), the “Three Brushes of Obaku,” who were the most revered and popular calligraphers of all the Obaku monks. Exhibition Label: Asian Gallery, Spring 2003, Youmi Efurd Chen Xian, a Zen Buddhist monk of the Obaku sect, specialized in painting. Although he remained in Fujian, China, when the leaders of the sect emigrated to Japan, many of his works were carried to Nagasaki and later to Mampuku-ji (near Kyoto), a headquarter of the Obaku sect of Zen Buddhism. His paintings often bear inscriptions by Ingen, Mokuan, and Jifei (Sokuhi), the “Three Brushes of Obaku,” who were the most revered and popular calligraphers of all the Obaku monks. Chen Xian’s paintings survive today in Japan although they are little known in his native China. Here, Chen Xian has portrayed the Buddhist deity of compassion, the Bodhisattva Guanyin, in a variation on a standard theme. Guanyin is often shown seated next to a vase holding a willow branch, while here a child attendant presents Guanyin with a miniature willow bonsai plant. Jifei, also a monk of the Obaku sect, wrote the calligraphy, which extols the virtues of chants made in praise of Guanyin.