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Writer's pictureRobin Yong

建仁寺(京都五山)小泉淳作の「双龍図」Twin Dragons by Koizumi Junsaku - Kennin-ji, Kyoto



This is actually a simple photograph of the ceiling of Kennin-ji temple in Kyoto.


Kennin-ji (Japanese: 建仁寺) is a historic Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan, and head temple of its associated branch of Rinzai Buddhism. It is considered to be one of the so-called Kyoto Gozan or "five most important Zen temples of Kyoto".

Kennin-ji was founded in 1202 CE and claims to be the oldest Zen temple in Kyoto. The temple was a replica of public Chinese monasteries found Zhejiang Province, which Japanese monks often frequented during the thirteenth century.

The monk Eisai, credited with introducing Zen to Japan, served as Kennin-ji's founding abbot and is buried on the temple grounds. For its first years the temple combined Zen, Tendai, and Shingon practices, but it became a purely Zen institution under the eleventh abbot, Lanxi Daolong (蘭渓道隆, Rankei Dōryū) (1213–1278). However, the various elements that Eisai is said to have adopted from Japanese Tendai were actually elements associated with Chan Buddhism from the public monasteries of the Song Dynasty. Ground plans from the Song Dynasty still exist for three prominent monasteries in Zhejiang Province that Eisai visited: Tiantong Mountain, Tiantai Mountain, and Bei Mountain. These plans reveal monastery layouts that were quite diverse, accommodating a wide range of Buddhist practices. It's highly probable that Eisai drew inspiration for the Shingon Hall he constructed at Kenninji from Chinese monastries. The Calming and Insight Hall at Kenninji may have been influenced by one Eisai encountered at Tiantai Mountain.


Kennin-ji is popular with devotees and touritsts for its dragon ceiling.

According to the Kennin-ji website, "Twin Dragons" by Koizumi Junsaku "commemorates the 800-year anniversary of Kenninji's founding, and a ceremony to mark its installation was given in April 2002. It measures 11.4m by 15.7m (the size of 108 tatami mats) and is drawn with the finest quality ink on thick traditional Japanese paper. It was created in the gymnasium of an elementary school in Hokkaido and took the artist just under two years to complete.

Koizumi was born in Kamakura, Kanagawa in 1924. In 1952, he graduated from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music (present name Tokyo University of the Arts; Jap. 東京芸術大学 Tōkyō Geijutsu Daigaku or Geidai 芸大). He held a number of gallery shows in Japan, and painted remarkable images on the ceilings of the Kennin-ji temple in Kyoto (2002), and Kenchō-ji temple in Kamakura (2003). He was a member of no particular school. His ink paintings (suibokuga) of Japan's mountains have received critical acclaim.

Japanese dragons (日本の竜/龍, Nihon no ryū) are diverse legendary creatures in Japanese mythology and folklore. Japanese dragon myths amalgamate native legends with imported stories about dragons from China, Korea and the Indian subcontinent. The style and appearance of the dragon was heavily influenced by the Chinese dragon, especially the three-clawed long (龍) dragons which were introduced in Japan from China in ancient times. Like these other East Asian dragons, most Japanese ones are water deities or kami associated with rainfall and bodies of water, and are typically depicted as large, wingless, serpentine creatures with clawed feet.



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