Sixteen Arhats (Color on Silk; by Zhao, pair of eight-panel screens with four later panels)

Sixteen Arhats from Yuan China

The Sixteen Arhats (Color on Silk; by Zhao, pair of eight-panel screens with four later panels), in Japanese 絹本著色十六羅漢像〈趙〓筆／八曲屏（内四枚後補）〉 (Kenpon Chakushoku Jūroku Rakan-zō), is a Yuan-dynasty Chinese painting owned by Hokekyoji Temple in Nakayama, Ichikawa City, Chiba Prefecture; it was designated a National Treasure under the old Ancient Temples and Shrines Preservation Law on 17 February 1904 and became an Important Cultural Property when the Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties took effect in 1950. It is now in the care of the Tokyo National Museum.

The sixteen arhats are painted across a pair of eight-panel folding screens, 16 panels in all. As the full title notes, four of the panels are later replacements. According to Chiba Prefecture, each panel measures 87.5 cm by 48 cm.

The Arhats and Their Rites

An arhat, rakan in Japanese, is a saint who has completed the path of practice. The sixteen arhats are those charged by the Buddha, at his death, to remain in the world and protect his teaching.

Chiba Prefecture explains that images of the sixteen arhats were made in China from about the seventh century, and that arhat painting flourished in Chan (Zen) monasteries by the ninth. In Japan, from the end of the Kamakura period, rites of offering before arhat images grew important, and temples imported paintings from China or had them copied. The Sixteen Arhats at Hokekyoji is one of the imported works.

Zhao of Siming

The symbol 〓 in the registered title stands for a character the Agency for Cultural Affairs database cannot display. Chiba Prefecture reports that the paintings once bore an inscription naming a painter called Zhao from Siming, the old name for Ningbo in Zhejiang Province, and that they are attributed to him.

The manner is the realistic brushwork then fashionable in China. Backgrounds are left out, and the arhats' faces and robes are recorded in close detail, so that the figures read almost as portraits.

The 1904 designation came barely a few years after Japan began naming artworks as National Treasures, and the Sixteen Arhats has held national designation ever since, for more than 120 years. Designated in 1904, it is today an Important Cultural Property.

Visiting

Chiba Prefecture states that the Sixteen Arhats is kept at the Tokyo National Museum, so it cannot be seen at Hokekyoji. Painted on fragile silk, it is shown only occasionally; check the Tokyo National Museum's website for its exhibition schedule.

The Tokyo National Museum is at 13-9 Ueno Park, Taito-ku, Tokyo, about a 10-minute walk from the Park Exit of JR Ueno Station. Hokekyoji, the owner, is at 2-10-1 Nakayama, Ichikawa.