Paired Illustrations of the Life of Zen Master Dōgen1 Overall view

This is one of the illustrated biographies of the life of Dōgen (1200-1253), the founder of the Sōtō sect of Buddhism in Japan. Various biographies of Dōgen have been written for a long time. In the late Edo period (1603-1868), biographies with illustrations, such as “Teiho Kenzeiki Zue” and “Eihei Kōso Gyōjōki” were published with the aim of conveying Dōgen’s life in a simple manner to the general public. The appearance of these illustrated biographies was closely associated with the 550th anniversary of Dōgen’s death (1802). The hanging scrolls of the biography had the advantage of allowing Dōgen to preach his life story in front of a large audience, and played a major role in popularizing the biography among monks and parishioners of the sect.

Those illustrations are a woodblock print with coloring. It is thought that many editions were printed at the time, but this print has been preserved in good condition, with little deterioration in the hyōgu (mounting) and coloring.
 
Scroll 1 (left side) <charts 1-23>
Production period: Shōji 2 - Antei 1 (1200-1227)

The first part of the scroll depicts the birth of the monk, his ordination on Mount Hiei following the death of his mother, and his descent from Mount Hiei to become a disciple of Myōzen at Kenninji Temple. With Myōzen, he traveled to the Southern Song Dynasty, and four years later attained enlightenment under Ju-ching at Mount Tiantai. The 23rd and final image is a legend that he copied “Blue Cliff Record” in one night with the help of Hakusan Gongen the night before he returned to Japan.