Lin Tinggui (; fl. circa 1174–1189) (
Japanese: Rin Teikei) was a
Chinese painter
Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...
of the
Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279 AD). His artwork was greatly influenced by themes of
Chinese Buddhism
Chinese Buddhism or Han Buddhism ( zh, s=汉传佛教, t=漢傳佛教, first=t, poj=Hàn-thoân Hu̍t-kàu, j=Hon3 Cyun4 Fat6 Gaau3, p=Hànchuán Fójiào) is a Chinese form of Mahayana Buddhism. The Chinese Buddhist canonJiang Wu, "The Chin ...
.
The Five Hundred Luohan
Lin Tinggui is best known for taking part alongside
Zhou Jichang (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 (Buddhist
saints
In Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Anglican, Oriental Orth ...
) inhabited a peak beyond the stone bridge of Mount Tiantai located at
Jiuhuashan, modern-day
Qingyang County,
Anhui
Anhui is an inland Provinces of China, province located in East China. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze and Huai rivers, bordering Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the east, Jiang ...
province,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
. 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, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
, 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
, officially , is a Cities of Japan, city of Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan. It is located in the Kanto region on the island of Honshu. The city has an estimated population of 172,929 (1 September 2020) and a population density of 4,359 people per k ...
,
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
. Hand-painted copies of the scrolls were made in 1368 by the Japanese painter-
priest
A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...
Minchou (1351 - 1431 AD) for the Buddhist temples
Engaku-ji 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
The was the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as th ...
warlord
Toyotomi Hideyoshi
, otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period, Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods and regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: ...
as spoils of war. He placed this precious set of 100 paintings in the
Hōkō-ji Temple, near
Hamamatsu, Shizuoka
is a city located in western Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. In September 2023, the city had an estimated population of 780,128 in 340,591 households, making it the prefecture's largest city, with a population density of over the total urban area o ...
, Japan. The painting set was then finally placed at the
Rinzai Buddhist
Daitoku-ji Temple in
Kyoto
Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...
,
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
, in its subtemple of Soken'in, which Hideyoshi had sponsored in honor of his predecessor,
Oda Nobunaga
was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period, Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods. He was the and regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. He is sometimes referred as the "Demon Daimyō" and "Demo ...
. In 1894, the temple was in need of funds for repair, and so auctioned forty-four of the 100 painted scrolls in
Boston
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
. 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 organizer. The latter then sold the painting in 1902 to
Charles Lang Freer, and is now housed in the
Freer Gallery of Art, part of the
Smithsonian Museum
A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...
in
Washington, D.C.
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, calle
''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
The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the list of largest art museums, 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 painting ...
.
See also
*
Culture of the Song dynasty
*
Chinese painting
Chinese painting () is one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world. Painting in the traditional style is known today in Chinese as , meaning "national painting" or "native painting", as opposed to Western styles of art which b ...
*
List of Chinese painters
External links
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston- Lin Tinggui and Zhou Jichang's artwork
Smithsonian Freer Gallery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lin, Tinggui
Song dynasty painters
Song dynasty Buddhists
Collection of the Smithsonian Institution
12th-century Chinese painters
Date of death unknown
Year of birth uncertain
Buddhist artists