Soga Shōhaku painted several iterations of Kanzan and Jittoku (Hanshan and Shide, in Chinese), legendary seventh-century Chinese figures who embody the Zen Buddhist principle of living in the present moment. Unbothered by the material concerns of society, the pair lived in the wilderness, scrounging food scraps to survive. Though details of their lives cannot be verified, it was believed that Jittoku previously worked in the kitchen of a Buddhist temple, whereas Kanzan was a poet and is often depicted reading, as he is here. Shōhaku’s Buddhist portraits are distinguished by his eccentric style and distorted faces, though his treatment of this pair is more gentle and subtle.

 

—Bradley Bailey