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Lot Essay
The Young Sesshu and a Newly Discovered Triptych
In 2019, Egaitsu Michihiko, a specialist in works by the medieval Zen Buddhist monk-painter Sesshu Toyo (1420–1506?) and now the Deputy Director and Curator of Japanese Art at the Yamaguchi Prefectural Art Museum, organized the exhibition “Sesshu no butsuga” (Sesshu’s Buddhist paintings), with an eponymous catalogue. As the centerpiece (and cover image), Egaitsu introduced this rare triptych of hanging scrolls from a private collection featuring the bodhisattva Monju (Manjushri) seated on a lion and flanked by the Chinese Daoist immortals Chokaro (Zhang Guolao) on the left and Ko Shohei (Huang Chuping) on the right. We are indebted to his detailed research on this and similar fifteenth-century paintings.
Most of us are familiar with Sesshu’s iconic Splashed Ink Landscape of 1495, carefully composed in ink wash when the artist was seventy-five. It is and the culmination of a lifetime of artistic practice, long after the artist’s transformative journey to China. (See Yukio Lippit, “Of Modes and Manners in Japanese Ink Painting: Sesshu’s Splashed Ink Landscape of 1495,” in The Art Bulletin, vol. 94 [2012].) The triptych shown here, however, is the work of the much younger Sesshu, or Sesso Toyo, from the 1450s, when he was in his mid-to-late thirties. As a child, Sesshu was sent from his home in Okayama to Kyoto to study. Around age twenty, when he showed promise as a painter, he entered Shokoku-ji, one of the capital’s great Zen monasteries, where he was trained in ink painting under Josetsu. After some fifteen years, realizing that he would not achieve career advancement there—he held only a lowly monastic position—Sesshu relocated to the western city of Yamaguchi in Suo province (now Yamaguchi Prefecture), the region where he lived most of his life. This triptych is a precious example of a very small group of his extant early work, notably figure paintings in a minimalist style associated with the then popular mode of the Southern Song painter Liang Kai. It is important to note that Sesshu’s figure paintings are rare and very few works survive from his early years. In that regard, this triptych is remarkable.
According to Professor Arata Shimao, also a Sesshu scholar, there are between thirteen and fourteen extant Sesso-period compositions all painted in a span of a few years in the mid-1450s. (At one time, Sesso and Sesshu were considered two different artists.) Shimao notes that the artist’s name change from Sesso to Sesshu was related to his participation in a trade mission on a commercial boat to Ming China in 1467. Yamaguchi was the home territory of the powerful Ouchi warlords, whose geographic proximity to Korea and China led to frequent trade and interaction with the mainland; Sesshu spent two years in China studying painting. The triptych shown here bears a red square seal reading Toyo. Sesshu used the name Sesso (拙宗) Toyo in his youth, but likely abandoned it after his trip to Beijing, where he studied at the Imperial Painting Academy. His dharma name was Toyo, and it appears to have remained unchanged throughout his life. The monastic title Sesso likely derives from his reverence for his mentor, the painter-monk Josetsu (如拙), and can be interpreted as meaning “one who follows Josetsu.” In other words, “Sesso” implies “one who takes (Josetsu’s) ‘拙’ as his guiding principle.”
After his return from China, Sesshu’s painting style changed dramatically—his focus shifted toward large-scale, polychrome compositions—making it difficult to reach a consensus on attribution of earlier works, such as this triptych. The chronology of “Sesso”-period paintings remains a topic for future research. That said, based on the quality of the painting and the seals, which match those on other Sesso/Sesshu works accepted as genuine, Japanese scholars believe with near certainty that this Monju triptych is by the hand of the master at the time he was known as Sesso Toyo.
The only painting by Sesso Toyo in the United States is Daruma, a hanging scroll in the Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA. (See Yao Wu, “Rediscovering an Iconic Painting by Sesshu,” Impressions 39 Part One of a Double Issue [2018], 165–67 <www.japaneseartsoc.org>.) It is inscribed with a verse by a monk of the Soto Zen sect related to the temple Myoko-ji in Yamaguchi and has a square relief seal reading Sesso. That painting was the centerpiece of an exhibition organized by Arata Shimao at the Nezu Museum, Tokyo, in 2016, “The Brilliant Artist Sesshu in His Youth.” Professor Shimao’s exhibition was the first to focus on the young artist and his paintings of Buddhist figural subjects early in his career. Simple lines and the expressive vigor of abbreviated brushwork characterized the eight early works selected by Shimao.
Sesshu’s simplified depiction of Monju on a lion, as seen in the central scroll of this triptych, was especially favored in Zen monastic circles from the fourteenth century onward. However, the iconographic sources for the central and side scrolls obviously differ. The unusual combination of Buddhist and Daoist subjects results in a heterogeneous triptych, a kind of mix-and-match format that became popular in fifteenth-century Japan. Heterogeneous triptychs were typically created to adorn tokonoma alcoves in the spacious reception rooms of samurai residences, serving as focal devotional images.
Monju is the embodiment of transcendent wisdom. He sits in a meditative pose, hands clasped in prayer beneath his robe, on the back of a crouching lion, viewed from a slightly oblique angle. The deity usually holds a curved ceremonial ruyi scepter, a thin stick with curved, ornamental head in cloud or mushroom shape. Here, in keeping with the artist’s rather light-hearted interpretation, the scepter is on the ground, seemingly caught beneath the lion’s front leg. The beast appears quite self-satisfied.
Monju’s hands and feet are hidden beneath his robes. At his chest, we glimpse his ornamental necklace. The bodhisattva is portrayed with the intelligent and refined features of a youth. His serene expression recalls that of the bodhisattva Jizo. His long hair is tied in a topknot, and a large circular halo appears behind his head. The outlines of Monju’s robes are drawn in ink of medium intensity, while the lion’s mane and deity’s hair and necklace are emphasized in dark ink, demonstrating Sesshu’s nuanced control of ink tones. Those sharp, black strokes of ink, sometimes scratchy, add excitement and variety that enlivens the imagery. Sesshu produced several simplified compositions of Monju on a Lion, and copies of that type survive within the Kano-school tradition. For example, Egaitsu included in his 2019 exhibition a very close copy by Kano Tsunenobu (1636–1722), from the collection of the Tokyo National Museum. The copy bears an inscription by Zen’an Tojun ( ?–1495), a monk of the Soto Zen school and the second abbot of Ruriko-ji temple in Yamaguchi. It is believed that Sesshu had a significant degree of interaction with that monk: a portrait of Zen’an Tojun by Sesshu is preserved at Ruriko-ji.
As mentioned, the left scroll of the triptych depicts the immortal Chokaro, a revered figure of the well-known group known as the Eight Immortals of Daoist tradition in China. The eight, who began their lives as human beings and then underwent spiritual and physical transformation, are revered as divine saints and had become widely popular in China by the fourteenth century. They are admired for their unconventional appearance, symbolizing their rejection of everyday norms. Chokaro is said to have lived as a hermit during the Tang dynasty, the seventh and eighth centuries, on Mount Tiaoshan in Hengzhou. A recluse, he was believed to know the secret arts of longevity and claimed to have lived for several hundred years. He rode a white donkey that could travel tens of thousands of miles in a single day. When resting, he would fold the donkey and store it in a box, and when ready to ride again, he would sprinkle water on it to restore its form and size. In Japan, from the Muromachi period onward, the image of Chokaro releasing a horse from a gourd became widely circulated, replacing the traditional mounted figure.
In Sesshu’s painting, Chokaro wears Daoist robes and straw sandals, with a futou hat, traditional Chinese headwear. In his right hand, he holds a small gourd, from which a miniature horse has emerged. The scene captures the dramatic instant of transformation, as with the depiction of the other immortal, Ko Shohei. A sizable moustache nearly obscures his mouth, but Chokaro appears to be smiling, even laughing, in high spirits, his mouth open. His face is drawn in profile, yet his ear is rendered as if viewed from behind—an unusual detail. The horse is painted using the mokkotsu technique, without contour lines, but there is shading with darker ink that gives the animal a sense of volume, and some light shading is applied to the old man’s shoulders, waist and legs. Both immortals are fleshed out in this way, with attention to realistic detail, unlike the more static, flattened form of the central Buddhist image.
The right scroll of the triptych depicts the immortal Ko Shohei, a figure from the Jin dynasty (265–420 CE) in China, known for his magical ability to transform stones into goats. Sesshū captures the moment of transformation—the shepherd commands a stone to become a goat. He wears Daoist robes, straw sandals, and a futou, a Tang-dynasty style hat, like that of his counterpart. He has a beard and mustache, his small eyes are rendered as dots, and his nose is upturned with visible nostrils. His mouth is open, likely to depict the very instant he utters the command to transform the stone. His right hand is extended toward the goat, capturing the dramatic gesture with finesse. Only the front half of the goat is shown, its body cropped at the edge of the painting. The creature, with prominent upright horns, is in the act of rising, pressing its forelegs into the ground as it transitions from stone to life. The folds of Ko Shohei’s robes are rendered in considerable detail, softened with a light ink wash spread across the surface. Compared to the central Monju, this scroll shows a more elaborate use of ink painting technique.
For his figure paintings, Sesshu worked in several popular modes, but here he favors the mode of the twelfth-century Southern Song dynasty Chinese painter Liang Kai. The flanking scrolls of the two immortal adepts share iconographic features with several of Sesshu’s fan-shaped paintings dating from the late fifteenth century. For example, in his Ko Shohei after Liang Kai in the Kyoto National Museum, an Important Cultural Property, the same bearded Chinese gentleman gestures toward a rock to bring it to life as a goat. Josetsu, who was Sesshu’s teacher during his early years in Kyoto, was known for his affinity with Liang Kai’s style, and Sesshū himself produced several works in this mode, including Figures from Various Lands (Kyoto National Museum) and the Qin, Chess, Calligraphy, and Painting a Folding Screen (Eisei Bunko, Tokyo). The newly discovered works introduced here are without background, while the fan paintings include landscape elements such as hillocks and trees. The Ko Shohei here is shown from a slightly frontal angle, whereas the one in a more Chinese style in the fan painting in the Kyoto National Museum is in strict profile. The newly discovered painting features one goat, while the other version shows two animals butting heads. Despite those differences, the basic iconography is clearly similar. In both images, the gesture of the right hand toward the goat, the dot-like eyes, and the boneless ink rendering of the goats are consistent.
As for the heterogenous triptych format combining Daoist and Buddhist imagery, Egaitsu points to a significant sixteenth-century example attributed to the painter Keison. A central scroll with the Zen Buddhist grouping of Kanzan and Jittoku is flanked by the Daoist immortals Chokaro and Ko Shohei, whose iconography shows clear parallels with our mid-fifteenth century scrolls by Sesso Toyo. The Keison triptych is illustrated in Kanto Suibokuga (Kanto region ink painting) by Aizawa Masahiko and Hashimoto Shinji (2007) and was formerly owned by Go Junzo (1825–1910), a Meiji-period bureaucrat and politician. Its provenance is confirmed by the 1919 Tokyo Bijutsu Club auction catalogue Go Danshaku-ke Shozohin Nyusatsu and it was later listed in the 1929 auction catalogue Kuga-ke and Shimada-ke Shozohin Nyusatsu.
In Chinese Buddhist art, the triptych format is typically used for compositions such as a Shaka Triad, with the Historical Buddha at the center, flanked by Monju and Fugen as attendants. Or one might see an Amida Triad, with Amida Buddha flanked by Kannon and Seishi. Those formats are especially common in Tendai and Pure Land Buddhist traditions. In Japan, the triptych format was expanded. For example, the central scroll might feature a sacred figure such as a Daoist or Buddhist sage flanked by bird-and-flowers or even landscapes—subjects with little or no religious content. That type of heterogeneous triptych is thought to have emerged around the mid-fourteenth century. According to Egaitsu, it is unlikely that there is a specific Chinese source for the Sesso Toyo triptych. Instead, the central and side scrolls were likely selected from diverse pictorial traditions. The classic example of the heterogenous triptych, of course, is the well-known Kannon and Gibbons, attributed to the fourteenth-century Chinese artist Muqi and housed at Daitoku-ji Temple, Kyoto.
Why the popularity of the heterogenous triptych format in Japan? Scholars now propose that it stemmed from the development of shoin-style architecture. As formal reception rooms became standardized in residences of the imperial court and military elite, it became customary to enshrine a central religious painting—typically a Daoist or Buddhist figure—and flank it with thematically related scrolls. In this context, the triptych format became essential. This theory is supported by records from the imperial visit in the ninth year of Eikyi (1437), when Emperor Go-Hanazono (1419–1471) visited Shogun Ashikaga Yoshinori (1394–1441) at the Muromachi Palace. According to the document Record of the Imperial Visit to the Muromachi Palace, the main room of the south-facing reception hall (the nine-mat room) was adorned with the triptych Lü Dongbin, Dragon, and Tiger. In the north-facing, four-mat room of the same hall, the triptych Kannon, Three Laughers, and Four Sleepers, attributed to Muqi, was displayed. The Hashidate Room, considered a principal chamber of the newly constructed reception hall, also featured a triptych by Muqi of Budai, Boatman, and Fisherman. Finally, the triptych Shaka with the Fifth and Sixth Patriarchs, attributed to Liang Kai, hung in the Kotori Alcove.
Those records show that the main reception rooms of the Muromachi shogunate’s residence were consistently decorated with triptychs. It is reasonable to conclude that the primary function of heterogeneous triptychs, which flourished in the fifteenth century, was to adorn such spacious reception rooms. Even if not as grand as the shogun’s palace or the homes of provincial governors, upper-ranking military elite likely had similar rooms for receiving guests. The Sesso Toyo triptych Monju Riding a Lion, Chokaro and Ko Shohei was likely created for such a space, commissioned by a wealthy samurai patron in Yamaguchi.
In 2019, Egaitsu Michihiko, a specialist in works by the medieval Zen Buddhist monk-painter Sesshu Toyo (1420–1506?) and now the Deputy Director and Curator of Japanese Art at the Yamaguchi Prefectural Art Museum, organized the exhibition “Sesshu no butsuga” (Sesshu’s Buddhist paintings), with an eponymous catalogue. As the centerpiece (and cover image), Egaitsu introduced this rare triptych of hanging scrolls from a private collection featuring the bodhisattva Monju (Manjushri) seated on a lion and flanked by the Chinese Daoist immortals Chokaro (Zhang Guolao) on the left and Ko Shohei (Huang Chuping) on the right. We are indebted to his detailed research on this and similar fifteenth-century paintings.
Most of us are familiar with Sesshu’s iconic Splashed Ink Landscape of 1495, carefully composed in ink wash when the artist was seventy-five. It is and the culmination of a lifetime of artistic practice, long after the artist’s transformative journey to China. (See Yukio Lippit, “Of Modes and Manners in Japanese Ink Painting: Sesshu’s Splashed Ink Landscape of 1495,” in The Art Bulletin, vol. 94 [2012].) The triptych shown here, however, is the work of the much younger Sesshu, or Sesso Toyo, from the 1450s, when he was in his mid-to-late thirties. As a child, Sesshu was sent from his home in Okayama to Kyoto to study. Around age twenty, when he showed promise as a painter, he entered Shokoku-ji, one of the capital’s great Zen monasteries, where he was trained in ink painting under Josetsu. After some fifteen years, realizing that he would not achieve career advancement there—he held only a lowly monastic position—Sesshu relocated to the western city of Yamaguchi in Suo province (now Yamaguchi Prefecture), the region where he lived most of his life. This triptych is a precious example of a very small group of his extant early work, notably figure paintings in a minimalist style associated with the then popular mode of the Southern Song painter Liang Kai. It is important to note that Sesshu’s figure paintings are rare and very few works survive from his early years. In that regard, this triptych is remarkable.
According to Professor Arata Shimao, also a Sesshu scholar, there are between thirteen and fourteen extant Sesso-period compositions all painted in a span of a few years in the mid-1450s. (At one time, Sesso and Sesshu were considered two different artists.) Shimao notes that the artist’s name change from Sesso to Sesshu was related to his participation in a trade mission on a commercial boat to Ming China in 1467. Yamaguchi was the home territory of the powerful Ouchi warlords, whose geographic proximity to Korea and China led to frequent trade and interaction with the mainland; Sesshu spent two years in China studying painting. The triptych shown here bears a red square seal reading Toyo. Sesshu used the name Sesso (拙宗) Toyo in his youth, but likely abandoned it after his trip to Beijing, where he studied at the Imperial Painting Academy. His dharma name was Toyo, and it appears to have remained unchanged throughout his life. The monastic title Sesso likely derives from his reverence for his mentor, the painter-monk Josetsu (如拙), and can be interpreted as meaning “one who follows Josetsu.” In other words, “Sesso” implies “one who takes (Josetsu’s) ‘拙’ as his guiding principle.”
After his return from China, Sesshu’s painting style changed dramatically—his focus shifted toward large-scale, polychrome compositions—making it difficult to reach a consensus on attribution of earlier works, such as this triptych. The chronology of “Sesso”-period paintings remains a topic for future research. That said, based on the quality of the painting and the seals, which match those on other Sesso/Sesshu works accepted as genuine, Japanese scholars believe with near certainty that this Monju triptych is by the hand of the master at the time he was known as Sesso Toyo.
The only painting by Sesso Toyo in the United States is Daruma, a hanging scroll in the Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA. (See Yao Wu, “Rediscovering an Iconic Painting by Sesshu,” Impressions 39 Part One of a Double Issue [2018], 165–67 <www.japaneseartsoc.org>.) It is inscribed with a verse by a monk of the Soto Zen sect related to the temple Myoko-ji in Yamaguchi and has a square relief seal reading Sesso. That painting was the centerpiece of an exhibition organized by Arata Shimao at the Nezu Museum, Tokyo, in 2016, “The Brilliant Artist Sesshu in His Youth.” Professor Shimao’s exhibition was the first to focus on the young artist and his paintings of Buddhist figural subjects early in his career. Simple lines and the expressive vigor of abbreviated brushwork characterized the eight early works selected by Shimao.
Sesshu’s simplified depiction of Monju on a lion, as seen in the central scroll of this triptych, was especially favored in Zen monastic circles from the fourteenth century onward. However, the iconographic sources for the central and side scrolls obviously differ. The unusual combination of Buddhist and Daoist subjects results in a heterogeneous triptych, a kind of mix-and-match format that became popular in fifteenth-century Japan. Heterogeneous triptychs were typically created to adorn tokonoma alcoves in the spacious reception rooms of samurai residences, serving as focal devotional images.
Monju is the embodiment of transcendent wisdom. He sits in a meditative pose, hands clasped in prayer beneath his robe, on the back of a crouching lion, viewed from a slightly oblique angle. The deity usually holds a curved ceremonial ruyi scepter, a thin stick with curved, ornamental head in cloud or mushroom shape. Here, in keeping with the artist’s rather light-hearted interpretation, the scepter is on the ground, seemingly caught beneath the lion’s front leg. The beast appears quite self-satisfied.
Monju’s hands and feet are hidden beneath his robes. At his chest, we glimpse his ornamental necklace. The bodhisattva is portrayed with the intelligent and refined features of a youth. His serene expression recalls that of the bodhisattva Jizo. His long hair is tied in a topknot, and a large circular halo appears behind his head. The outlines of Monju’s robes are drawn in ink of medium intensity, while the lion’s mane and deity’s hair and necklace are emphasized in dark ink, demonstrating Sesshu’s nuanced control of ink tones. Those sharp, black strokes of ink, sometimes scratchy, add excitement and variety that enlivens the imagery. Sesshu produced several simplified compositions of Monju on a Lion, and copies of that type survive within the Kano-school tradition. For example, Egaitsu included in his 2019 exhibition a very close copy by Kano Tsunenobu (1636–1722), from the collection of the Tokyo National Museum. The copy bears an inscription by Zen’an Tojun ( ?–1495), a monk of the Soto Zen school and the second abbot of Ruriko-ji temple in Yamaguchi. It is believed that Sesshu had a significant degree of interaction with that monk: a portrait of Zen’an Tojun by Sesshu is preserved at Ruriko-ji.
As mentioned, the left scroll of the triptych depicts the immortal Chokaro, a revered figure of the well-known group known as the Eight Immortals of Daoist tradition in China. The eight, who began their lives as human beings and then underwent spiritual and physical transformation, are revered as divine saints and had become widely popular in China by the fourteenth century. They are admired for their unconventional appearance, symbolizing their rejection of everyday norms. Chokaro is said to have lived as a hermit during the Tang dynasty, the seventh and eighth centuries, on Mount Tiaoshan in Hengzhou. A recluse, he was believed to know the secret arts of longevity and claimed to have lived for several hundred years. He rode a white donkey that could travel tens of thousands of miles in a single day. When resting, he would fold the donkey and store it in a box, and when ready to ride again, he would sprinkle water on it to restore its form and size. In Japan, from the Muromachi period onward, the image of Chokaro releasing a horse from a gourd became widely circulated, replacing the traditional mounted figure.
In Sesshu’s painting, Chokaro wears Daoist robes and straw sandals, with a futou hat, traditional Chinese headwear. In his right hand, he holds a small gourd, from which a miniature horse has emerged. The scene captures the dramatic instant of transformation, as with the depiction of the other immortal, Ko Shohei. A sizable moustache nearly obscures his mouth, but Chokaro appears to be smiling, even laughing, in high spirits, his mouth open. His face is drawn in profile, yet his ear is rendered as if viewed from behind—an unusual detail. The horse is painted using the mokkotsu technique, without contour lines, but there is shading with darker ink that gives the animal a sense of volume, and some light shading is applied to the old man’s shoulders, waist and legs. Both immortals are fleshed out in this way, with attention to realistic detail, unlike the more static, flattened form of the central Buddhist image.
The right scroll of the triptych depicts the immortal Ko Shohei, a figure from the Jin dynasty (265–420 CE) in China, known for his magical ability to transform stones into goats. Sesshū captures the moment of transformation—the shepherd commands a stone to become a goat. He wears Daoist robes, straw sandals, and a futou, a Tang-dynasty style hat, like that of his counterpart. He has a beard and mustache, his small eyes are rendered as dots, and his nose is upturned with visible nostrils. His mouth is open, likely to depict the very instant he utters the command to transform the stone. His right hand is extended toward the goat, capturing the dramatic gesture with finesse. Only the front half of the goat is shown, its body cropped at the edge of the painting. The creature, with prominent upright horns, is in the act of rising, pressing its forelegs into the ground as it transitions from stone to life. The folds of Ko Shohei’s robes are rendered in considerable detail, softened with a light ink wash spread across the surface. Compared to the central Monju, this scroll shows a more elaborate use of ink painting technique.
For his figure paintings, Sesshu worked in several popular modes, but here he favors the mode of the twelfth-century Southern Song dynasty Chinese painter Liang Kai. The flanking scrolls of the two immortal adepts share iconographic features with several of Sesshu’s fan-shaped paintings dating from the late fifteenth century. For example, in his Ko Shohei after Liang Kai in the Kyoto National Museum, an Important Cultural Property, the same bearded Chinese gentleman gestures toward a rock to bring it to life as a goat. Josetsu, who was Sesshu’s teacher during his early years in Kyoto, was known for his affinity with Liang Kai’s style, and Sesshū himself produced several works in this mode, including Figures from Various Lands (Kyoto National Museum) and the Qin, Chess, Calligraphy, and Painting a Folding Screen (Eisei Bunko, Tokyo). The newly discovered works introduced here are without background, while the fan paintings include landscape elements such as hillocks and trees. The Ko Shohei here is shown from a slightly frontal angle, whereas the one in a more Chinese style in the fan painting in the Kyoto National Museum is in strict profile. The newly discovered painting features one goat, while the other version shows two animals butting heads. Despite those differences, the basic iconography is clearly similar. In both images, the gesture of the right hand toward the goat, the dot-like eyes, and the boneless ink rendering of the goats are consistent.
As for the heterogenous triptych format combining Daoist and Buddhist imagery, Egaitsu points to a significant sixteenth-century example attributed to the painter Keison. A central scroll with the Zen Buddhist grouping of Kanzan and Jittoku is flanked by the Daoist immortals Chokaro and Ko Shohei, whose iconography shows clear parallels with our mid-fifteenth century scrolls by Sesso Toyo. The Keison triptych is illustrated in Kanto Suibokuga (Kanto region ink painting) by Aizawa Masahiko and Hashimoto Shinji (2007) and was formerly owned by Go Junzo (1825–1910), a Meiji-period bureaucrat and politician. Its provenance is confirmed by the 1919 Tokyo Bijutsu Club auction catalogue Go Danshaku-ke Shozohin Nyusatsu and it was later listed in the 1929 auction catalogue Kuga-ke and Shimada-ke Shozohin Nyusatsu.
In Chinese Buddhist art, the triptych format is typically used for compositions such as a Shaka Triad, with the Historical Buddha at the center, flanked by Monju and Fugen as attendants. Or one might see an Amida Triad, with Amida Buddha flanked by Kannon and Seishi. Those formats are especially common in Tendai and Pure Land Buddhist traditions. In Japan, the triptych format was expanded. For example, the central scroll might feature a sacred figure such as a Daoist or Buddhist sage flanked by bird-and-flowers or even landscapes—subjects with little or no religious content. That type of heterogeneous triptych is thought to have emerged around the mid-fourteenth century. According to Egaitsu, it is unlikely that there is a specific Chinese source for the Sesso Toyo triptych. Instead, the central and side scrolls were likely selected from diverse pictorial traditions. The classic example of the heterogenous triptych, of course, is the well-known Kannon and Gibbons, attributed to the fourteenth-century Chinese artist Muqi and housed at Daitoku-ji Temple, Kyoto.
Why the popularity of the heterogenous triptych format in Japan? Scholars now propose that it stemmed from the development of shoin-style architecture. As formal reception rooms became standardized in residences of the imperial court and military elite, it became customary to enshrine a central religious painting—typically a Daoist or Buddhist figure—and flank it with thematically related scrolls. In this context, the triptych format became essential. This theory is supported by records from the imperial visit in the ninth year of Eikyi (1437), when Emperor Go-Hanazono (1419–1471) visited Shogun Ashikaga Yoshinori (1394–1441) at the Muromachi Palace. According to the document Record of the Imperial Visit to the Muromachi Palace, the main room of the south-facing reception hall (the nine-mat room) was adorned with the triptych Lü Dongbin, Dragon, and Tiger. In the north-facing, four-mat room of the same hall, the triptych Kannon, Three Laughers, and Four Sleepers, attributed to Muqi, was displayed. The Hashidate Room, considered a principal chamber of the newly constructed reception hall, also featured a triptych by Muqi of Budai, Boatman, and Fisherman. Finally, the triptych Shaka with the Fifth and Sixth Patriarchs, attributed to Liang Kai, hung in the Kotori Alcove.
Those records show that the main reception rooms of the Muromachi shogunate’s residence were consistently decorated with triptychs. It is reasonable to conclude that the primary function of heterogeneous triptychs, which flourished in the fifteenth century, was to adorn such spacious reception rooms. Even if not as grand as the shogun’s palace or the homes of provincial governors, upper-ranking military elite likely had similar rooms for receiving guests. The Sesso Toyo triptych Monju Riding a Lion, Chokaro and Ko Shohei was likely created for such a space, commissioned by a wealthy samurai patron in Yamaguchi.