This is a painting of the Great Avatar of Mount Akiba, a Shinto deity who prevents fires. The inscription reads “After making countless fire offerings day after day, he instantly became one with the dharma body of Akiba Gongen (the avatar of Mount Akiba). This deity saves all people without limit. He was originally a priest from Echigo Province named Sanjakubo.” The “Echigo Sanjakubo” at the end of the inscription refers to a priest from Shinano Province who became the head priest of Sanjakubo, a subtemple of Zaodo (Zao Hall) in Echigo. According to the legend of Mount Akiba, this priest, after completing his studies of the religious rites of the deity Fudo, transformed and developed the ability to fly, with a white fox then appearing to guide him through the skies to Mount Akiba in Totoumi.

The deity resembles Fudo Myo’o (Skt. Acalanatha) here in the way he stands against flames with a sword in his right hand and a rope in his left, though he has a different face and is also accompanied by a white fox. Three other similarly-themed works by Hakuin have been confirmed. According to Hakuin (Chikumashobo, 1964), two of these (one at the Eisei Bunko Museum and one in a private collection) resemble the Sanjakubo statue at Shoinji temple, also purportedly by Hakuin. The third one at Heirinji temple portrays Sanjakubo with disheveled hair and furnished with a crow and wings in the manner of a crow-beak tengu (goblin). As such, it resembles the portrayal of the deity in this work. In this painting, the deity sports bird-like wings and he carried a sword and a rope in his left and right hands, respectively. This tallies well with the descriptions of the deity in the Brief History of Mount Akiba. In all the depictions, the deity is displayed against an ink-filled background as he stands upright on a white fox with flames rising up behind, a representation that emphasizes his divine powers in dramatic fashion. The white fox’s flying cloud is absent from this painting. However, though the Heirinji version has no inscription, this painting and the other two are furnished with inscriptions that give a clear account of the painting subject.

From the Genroku era onwards, the Great Avatar of Mount Akiba became well known as the god of fire prevention. An explanation in the aforementioned Hakuin publication describes how Hakuin played a direct role in this transmission: “In the ninth month of Horeki 5 (1755), when Hakuin was seventy-one, Uematsu of Hara enshrined the Great Avatar of Mount Akiba in Kannonji temple. Hakuin conducted the rites at this ceremony.” This work provides a great example of how Hakuin’s Zen paintings covered a wide range of themes while connecting deeply with the faith and reverence contained in people’s hearts.

Hakuin Ekaku (Zen priest; 1685–1768)
Mid-Edo period Zen priest of the Rinzai School; calligrapher and painter. Hakuin began his religious training with the Zen master Tanrei Soden at Shoinji temple in today’s Shizuoka Prefecture. Spending many years as a traveling monk, he eventually rose to the position of abbot of the eminent Zen temple Myoshinji in Kyoto in 1718. Hakuin played a vital role in reviving the declining Rinzai School and in spreading Zen Buddhism among a wide public. His humorous paintings and his expressive, bold calligraphy served to illustrate his religious teachings to an often-illiterate audience of commoners. In modern times both came to be highly regarded for their unique aesthetic qualities.