Between 1854 and 1863, Japanese artist Kano Kazunobu (1816-1863) created a series of 100 paintings of the Buddha’s 500 disciples. Very early Buddhist sacred texts suggested that during one of the Buddha’s famous sermons, 500 followers received instant enlightenment. These disciples became known as “the worthy ones,” and fascination with them was a staple of Japanese Buddhist iconography. Kazunobu interpreted this ancient idea of “the worthy ones” and intertwined with it popular themes from his own era to create lively, richly colored, and highly detailed scenes of the disciples. His 19th century scroll paintings range from depictions of monastic life and duties to images of the disciples performing miracles, such as saving people from hell or relieving a drought. Watch our interview about Buddhism and Kazunobu’s paintings with James Ulak, senior curator of Japanese art at the Smithsonian Institution’s Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. Masters of Mercy: Buddha’s Amazing Disciples is on display through July 8, 2012 at the Sackler Gallery in Washington, DC. Produced by Jonathan Stroshine and Lauren Talley. Interview by Lauren Talley. Edited by Lauren Talley and Fred Yi.
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JAMES ULAK (Senior Curator of Japanese Art,
Smithsonian Institution’s Freer and Sackler Galleries): These are the
designated closest disciples of the living Buddha in the time in the
fifth century before the Christian era when he preached his message in
what is now northeast India.
These close followers who later received the canonical number of five
hundred became known as the “worthy ones.” In Sanskrit, the language of
the day in India, Sanskrit calls these people arhats. You hear
different names applied to these five hundred. The point of Buddhist
fascination with these five hundred followers is that they take the role
of intercessors and messengers from the Buddha, teaching compassion,
showing that the Buddha’s life can be lived on earth, and they take on
the role of supermen. The idea was that they were enlightened but yet
living among us. And so they were able to show us how to live but yet
also conduct these intercessory miraculous acts to save us from our
sufferings.
