Portrait of Kanazawa Sadaaki (Color on Silk)

One of the Four Commanders, National Treasure in 1966

Portrait of Kanazawa Sadaaki (Color on Silk) (絹本著色金沢貞顕像, Kenpon Chakushoku Kanesawa Sadaaki Zo) is a Kamakura-period portrait owned by Shomyoji at Kanazawa Ward, Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture, designated a National Treasure on 11 June 1966 after becoming an Important Cultural Property on 7 April 1900.

Sixty-six years separate the two. The portraits of Hojo Sanetoki, Hojo Akitoki and Kanazawa Sadamasa at the same temple carry identical dates.

The four are known as the four commanders and show four generations of the Kanazawa branch of the Hojo. This is the portrait of Sadaaki among them.

One Record Speaks for the Whole Group

All four are recorded as separate properties, yet a commentary appears on only one of them.

Cultural Heritage Online returns a record for the portrait of Hojo Sanetoki alone, and that record carries the account of the group: this work came down at Shomyoji, the family temple of the Kanazawa branch of the Hojo, under the name of the four commanders, and as portraits spanning four generations of a house of famous warriors it holds very high value in cultural history.

No matching commentary is found for the other three, this one included. One record speaks for four.

With the Choju Jinbutsu Giga, the body of the work carried a single sentence while a detached fragment carried the full account, and the Saigyo scrolls showed the same shape. What differs here is that among four items of equal standing, only one carries the explanation.

Without reading that one, the character of the group cannot be known.

The Appended Figure Is Placed by Reference to This Sitter

The Sanetoki record also treats the appendage.

It notes that the portrait of Kenben, designated as an appendage, shows the elder brother of Sadaaki, who served as head of the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu and rose to the rank of bishop.

To say who Kenben was, the record uses Sadaaki as the reference point: the elder brother of Sadaaki.

Four men stand among the commanders, Sanetoki, Akitoki, Sadaaki and Sadamasa. Of these, Sadaaki is the one chosen to place the appended figure.

Kenben was a monk, the single exception among four warriors. Kinship with the four is presumably why he was brought within the listing, though the record gives no reason.

Close to the Sitters' Own Lifetimes

The words of assessment apply to all four.

The images were all made at dates close to the lifetimes of their sitters, the depiction is fine, and they are representative works of the Kamakura period.

All is the word used. Every one of the four is said to have been made near the lifetime of the man it shows.

Since the set covers four generations, the dates of making must be spread across a span. That each falls near its sitter's lifetime means they were painted generation by generation.

They were not made together at one time but added as the generations passed. The Agency records no year of making for any of them.

Seeing It

Shomyoji, at Kanazawa Ward, Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture, owns the portrait. It is a temple holding, not an object kept on permanent display.

Paintings are vulnerable to light and are usually shown only for short periods. Since the four portraits hold separate records, they are not necessarily shown together.

Counting the appended portrait of Kenben brings the number to five. Occasions when all are brought together are rarer still.

The precinct of Shomyoji is designated a historic site, and the temple's Buddhist texts and Kanazawa Bunko documents are recorded separately again. Paintings, precinct and documents are each treated as their own property.