Devils Preventing Buddhist Practices (study) 

Shimomura Kanzan was a Japanese painter active from the Meiji Era (1868-1912) to the beginning of the Showa Era (1926-1989). This work is a study for Devils Preventing Buddhist Practices, currently in the collection of the Tokyo National Museum. In the center a monk and Buddha sit facing each other, but if you look closely, the Buddha’s limbs have beast-like hair and long claws, and his eyes are greedily staring at the fish placed to one side. The title, Devils Preventing Buddhist Practices, refers to some kind of magic preventing the practice of Buddhism, and here what the monk faces is in fact a magical beast that is impersonating the Buddha. It can be seen from this and other extant studies that Kanzan was particularly careful with his expression of the creature, and made repeated versions of it. Studies like this are a valuable resource that allow us to get a sense of how a work was completed.
(HIBINO Miyon)

■Related
・Hibino Miyon “The Evolution of Shimomura Kanzan’s Profane Intrusion” (PDF)
（”Bulletin of Yokohama Museum of Art,” No. 22, Yokohama Museum of Art, 2021, pp. 5, 11-29 [in Japanese], 111 [summery in English]）