Portraits of Thirty-Six Immortal Buddhist Poets

All the poets in this scroll are also Buddhist priests. This is a segment of an illustrated scroll featuring 36 waka poems composed by Buddhist priests, together with portraits of these priests. This format is based on a poetry anthology produced by the Heian-period aristocrat and poet Fujiwara no Kinto. This collection was compiled by Eikai, a priest at Kajuji temple in Kyoto. Eikai writes about the reasoning behind his selection in the scroll's preface. The first portrait features the founder of Zen Buddhism, Bodhidharma. The child standing across from him is Prince Shotoku. Though Prince Shotoku was not a priest, he was probably chosen for his pioneering work in promulgating Buddhism in Japan.

The next two figures are Bodhisena and Gyoki, two priests who played a major role in the installation of the Great Buddha in Todaiji temple, Nara. In this way, distinguished figures from the history of Japanese Buddhism appear in chronological order, one after the other. The portraits are mainly drawn in ink, though they feature splashes of color in places. Ink lines drawings like these also served as templates or blueprints for Buddhist paintings, with Buddhist elements incorporated into the way these portraits are drawn. As such, this intriguing work fuses Buddhism with the waka poetry that emerged from courtly culture.

— Museum description: Tokyo National Museum (CC BY 4.0), via ColBase / Japan Search.