Lin Tinggui
Encyclopedia
Lin Tinggui (active circa 1174 - 1189 AD) (Japanese
Japanese name
in modern times usually consist of a family name , followed by a given name. "Middle names" are not generally used.Japanese names are usually written in kanji, which are characters of usually Chinese origin in Japanese pronunciation...

: Rin Teikei) was a Chinese
Chinese people
The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....

 painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

 of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127 - 1279 AD). His artwork was greatly influenced by themes of Chinese Buddhism.

The Five Hundred Luohan

Lin Tinggui is best known for taking part alongside Zhou Jichang
Zhou Jichang
Zhou Jichang , Japanese: Shuu Kijou) was a Chinese painter of the Song Dynasty . His artwork featured many central themes of Chinese Buddhism and Buddhist folklore....

 (Japanese: Shuu Kijou) in the completion of the Five Hundred Luohan (Chinese: Wubai Luohan), a set of 100 paintings commissioned as a gift to a Buddhist temple in 1175 by a Chinese Buddhist abbot. This artistic project in honor of the luohan was completed three years later in 1178.

In Chinese Buddhist folklore, it was said that five hundred luohan
Luohan
Luohan can mean:* Luóhàn, the Chinese word for arhat, in Buddhism* Luohan or flowerhorn, a cichlid fish hybrid* Luohan , named after the Chinese word for arhat...

 (Buddhist saints) inhabited a peak beyond the stone bridge of Mount Tiantai located at Jiuhuashan
Jiuhuashan
Mount Jiuhua is one of the four sacred mountains of Chinese Buddhism. It is located in Qingyang County in Anhui province and is famous for its rich landscape and ancient temples....

, modern-day Qingyang
Qingyang
Qingyang is a prefecture-level city in China's Gansu province.-Geography and climate:Qingyang is in eastern Gansu province and is sometimes referred to in Chinese as "Longdong" . Ningxia province is to the north west and Shaanxi is to the east. It is in the lower middle part of the Yellow River on...

 County, Anhui
Anhui
Anhui is a province in the People's Republic of China. Located in eastern China across the basins of the Yangtze River and the Huai River, it borders Jiangsu to the east, Zhejiang to the southeast, Jiangxi to the south, Hubei to the southwest, Henan to the northwest, and Shandong for a tiny...

 province, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

. This belief was either formed from an older Daoist belief that the site was home to immortals, or from knowledge of Buddhist legend from India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, specifically the belief of five hundred arhats living on Mt. Buddhavanagiri near Rajagrha. It was this belief that provided the central theme of Lin Tinggui and Zhou Jichang's artwork.

The Five Hundred Luohan outside of China

During the 13th century, the set of paintings completed by Lin Tinggui and Zhou Jichang were imported to Japan and wound up as the property of Jufuku-ji Temple in Kamakura, Kanagawa
Kamakura, Kanagawa
is a city located in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, about south-south-west of Tokyo. It used to be also called .Although Kamakura proper is today rather small, it is often described in history books as a former de facto capital of Japan as the seat of the Shogunate and of the Regency during the...

, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. Hand-painted copies of the scrolls were made in 1368 by the Japanese painter-priest
Priest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...

 Minchou (1351 - 1431 AD) for the Buddhist temples Engaku-ji
Engaku-ji
right|thumb|A stone carvingNot to be confused with Enryaku-ji in Kyoto., or Engaku-ji , is one of the most important Zen Buddhist temple complexes in Japan and is ranked second among Kamakura's Five Mountains. It is situated in the city of Kamakura, in Kanagawa prefecture to the south of Tokyo...

 and Toufuku-ji in Kamakura. The painting set was moved by the Hojo warrior family at a later date to Sounji, and in the 16th century they were taken from eastern Japan by the late Sengoku period
Sengoku period
The or Warring States period in Japanese history was a time of social upheaval, political intrigue, and nearly constant military conflict that lasted roughly from the middle of the 15th century to the beginning of the 17th century. The name "Sengoku" was adopted by Japanese historians in reference...

 warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi
Toyotomi Hideyoshi
was a daimyo warrior, general and politician of the Sengoku period. He unified the political factions of Japan. He succeeded his former liege lord, Oda Nobunaga, and brought an end to the Sengoku period. The period of his rule is often called the Momoyama period, named after Hideyoshi's castle...

 as spoils of war. He placed this precious set of 100 paintings in the Hōkō-ji
Hoko-ji (Shizuoka)
' near Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture dates from the 14th century.Mumon Gensen founded in 1371. Since 1903, Hōkō-ji has been the main temple of Hōkō-ji sect of the Rinzai school of Buddhism.- See also :...

 Temple, near Hamamatsu, Shizuoka
Hamamatsu, Shizuoka
is a city located in western Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. On July 1, 2005, the city merged with 11 surrounding cities and towns. It became a city designated by government ordinance on April 1, 2007.- History :...

, Japan. The painting set was then finally placed at the Rinzai Buddhist Daitoku-ji
Daitoku-ji
is a Buddhist temple, one of fourteen autonomous branches of the Rinzai school of Japanese Zen. It is located in Kita-ku, Kyoto, Japan. The "mountain name" , who is known by the title Daitō Kokushi, or "National Teacher of the Great Lamp," that he was given by Emperor Go-Daigo...

 Temple in Kyoto
Kyoto
is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...

, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, in its subtemple of Soken'in, which Hideyoshi had sponsored in honor of his predecessor, Oda Nobunaga
Oda Nobunaga
was the initiator of the unification of Japan under the shogunate in the late 16th century, which ruled Japan until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was also a major daimyo during the Sengoku period of Japanese history. His opus was continued, completed and finalized by his successors Toyotomi...

. In 1894, the temple was in need of funds for repair, and so auctioned forty-four of the 100 painted scrolls in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

. Ten of these paintings were sold by the Japanese during the exhibit (while the rest returned to Kyoto), while the painting Luohan Laundering by Lin Tinggui was given as a gift to the tour's American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 organizer. The latter then sold the painting in 1902 to Charles Lang Freer
Charles Lang Freer
Charles Lang Freer was an American railroad-car manufacturer from Detroit, Michigan who gave to the United States his art collections and funds for a building to house them. The Freer Gallery of Art founded by him is part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C..-Early life:Freer was...

, and is now housed in the Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
The Freer Gallery of Art joins the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery to form the Smithsonian Institution's national museums of Asian art. The Freer contains art from East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Islamic world, the ancient Near East, and ancient Egypt, as well as a significant collection of...

, part of the Smithsonian Museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...

 in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....



In this famous painting of Lin Tinggui, Luohan Laundering (1178), five brightly-colored Luohan and one attendant are seen washing their clothes and hanging them out to dry by a gushing stream moving through a dismally brown-shaded and thick-wooded landscape. On the lower right-hand corner of the painting, almost invisible to the naked eye, is a small signature penned in gold by Lin Tinggui. The Freer Gallery also has a painting from the set done by Zhou Jichang, called Rock Bridge at Tiantai Mountain.

Several other works in the Five Hundred Luohan set by Lin Tinggui and Zhou Jichang alike are at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, is one of the largest museums in the United States, attracting over one million visitors a year. It contains over 450,000 works of art, making it one of the most comprehensive collections in the Americas...

.

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