The Richness of Nature at Large
Has been shown with the triptych outside Japan. Even in Japan, noted Ambassador Ichiro Fujisaki, the entire suite of paintings is “rarely displayed all at once—usually only a few paintings at a time”—and the paintings reunite with the triptych only once a year at Shōkokuji Monastery in Kyōto for an annual repentance ritual in recognition of Kannon, the Bodhisattva of compassion.The monastery was Jakuchū’s spiritual home during his lifetime, and on March 26, Buddhist monks from Shōkokuji traveled to the National Gallery to bless the paintings as they began their time in the United States. A small altar in front of the triptych held a simple pot of incense, a vase with a single chrysanthemum, and a steady candle. The weighty smell of beeswax and pine filled the gallery as the monks offered prayers to Kannon for the comfort of Jakuchū’s soul and for peace in the world. The superintendent of the monastery, Reverend Raitei Arima, clad in robes of carmine and purple,