Korea Journal of Buddhist Studies ISSN:1598-0642(Print) 불교학연구

When Nisshin who had been a Nichiren monk was excommunicated from Nichiren Buddhism, he founded the Honpou-ji Temple in Kyoto in 1436. After that, he was active in propagating over the country with a head Temple in Honpou-ji. His propagation was more positive and exclusive compared to the Nichiren Buddhism’s.The picture of Nisshin in Honpou-ji Temple, which is discussed in this thesis, is considered to be the oldest portrait of Nisshin and it has been said that it was painted by Kano Masanobu, the founder of the Kano school; however, it didn’t have something in common with his other works. By examining the face in the picture of Nisshin following the originally a Chinese-style, and its body in Yamato’s style, we can see how Masanobu, originally a Chinese-style painter, combined his original painting style with Yamato’s. Also, even though this was kind of a Nichiren Buddhism portrait from an iconographic point of view, it didn’t follow that form in the style and rather had iconography similar to the Sukkavati portrait. Here is what we have to focus on. This is that even though he followed hokke-shu, he was a painter whose paintings were completed at the order of Shogunate and Zen monk. In other words, even if Masanobu was originally a Chinese-style painter, most of his works were to their taste, and that is the reason why the picture of Nisshin in Honpou-ji Temple has a similar iconography to the Zen portrait.The picture of Nisshin shows that Masanobu put his idea ‘to embody the spirit’, which is the most important trait in the Zen portrait, into painting the portrait and tried to embody the spirit of Nisshin.Only when the spirit was well expressed in the picture, could it be said that the picture had the ‘reality and resemblance’, which was the most important factor in Medieval portraits.It is inferred that Masanobu followed this style. This means that specific description of the face in originally Chinese-style, a body description and legend in Yamato-e’s painting style can be related to respect for Nisshin and the expression of internal ideal after all. Masanobu thought that reality and resemblance could not be considered separately but communicated with each other, and he intended to embody the Nichiren monk’s spirit through the picture of Nisshin.