Kanō Masanobu’s hanging scroll painting titled Priest Nisshin is an amazing 15th-century painting that was created within the Sumi-e style (ink and wash). It features an exquisite colored painting of the famous monk of the Nichiren Sect. Nisshin is depicted as standing somewhat sideways in an erect and straight position due to his firm belief in his religion and strictness. He is wearing the usual flowing dark robe of a Buddhist priest, which is drawn using sharp and clear brush lines that characterize the Kanō school of art. The face is drawn using fine line work to express a calm yet resolute look. The minimal background draws all attention to the religious figure, giving the painting a meditative quality and sense of isolation. Shading skillfully used by Masanobu creates a feeling of weight and dimensionality for the robes, thus perfectly combining the Chinese style of line work and Japanese understanding of space. Although Masanobu worked as the head secular painter for the Ashikaga shogunate and was often linked to elite Zen Buddhist monasteries, this particular artwork is unique since it portrays a high-ranking monk from the competing Nichiren sect. This underlines the wide market for Masanobu’s services as an artist. Despite its heavy dependence on the shades of gray found in ink wash painting, this image contains gentle but purposeful injections of colors made using mineral paints. This helps the plain monastic garments acquire some depth of color and character without detracting from the contemplative atmosphere of the image.
What holds me is the stillness. The priest sits in dark robes against a muted, earth-brown ground, so his shaved head and pale face become the brightest points in the composition. Nothing competes with him, and the dark mass of his robe anchors the scroll like a stone settled into the earth. It reads as a portrait of conviction, not personality.
The inscriptions matter as much as the figure. Columns of calligraphy fill the space above him, and the central column looks to me like the Nichiren Daimoku, the invocation of the Lotus Sutra. His faith is written into the picture itself. His body sits below, and his beliefs hover above him. Here the priest is almost a vessel for the text.
His hands rest on an ornate folded object, perhaps a fan or a document, whose pattern is the brightest detail in the piece. It's the only ornament in a portrait otherwise built on restraint. Together with his direct, unsmiling gaze, it makes him feel less like a man posing than a man attending. I read the painting as an attempt to preserve presence and resolve for the devotees who would later bow before it, more than a likeness.
