Gocho was an artist of the Tendai sect of Buddhism known for his faith-healing and his ink paintings in the Zenga manner. The figure of the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni, was painted when Gocho was eighty years old (by Western count) and serving as abbot of the Choei-ji temple in Nagoya. This theme from the life of the Buddha gained importance in Zen circles in China in the 12th century and paintings of the subject were imported to Japan as early as the 13th century. According to Buddhist accounts, Shakyamuni went into the mountain wilderness to practice ennervating forms of self-immolation for six years. He eventually concluded that asceticism was not the best way to achieve his goal of enlightenment, and left the mountains. He is typically shown as disheveled and emaciated. The protruberance on the top of his head (usnisa) is visible through the curls of his hair. His hands are folded together but are covered by his robe so as to avoid any reference to a specific symbolic hand gesture (mudra) of the sort common in esoteric Buddhism. Gocho's poem has been translated as follows:

After six years of austerities
He swallowed up the universal emptiness
And disgorged the three thousand worlds,
Creating a wind which filled the sky and circled the earth.