Portrait of Keinan Eibun

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This image of a seated monk is an example of chinsō, a genre of naturalistic portraiture reserved for high-ranking Zen Buddhist monks or abbots. Subjects were typically shown seated in a carved lacquer chair and wearing official robes, including the elaborate kesa, or master’s vestment; the details of their facial features were carefully reproduced. Chinsō portraits were precious artifacts of the master-disciple relationship central to Zen, and may also have been used in Buddhist ceremonies. Keinan Eibun (1365–1454) was at one time abbot of the Nanzenji Temple in Kyoto, and his inscriptions appear on several extant hanging scrolls, including on a posthumous portrait of the shogun Ashikaga Yoshinori (1394–1441). Here he is depicted at the age of seventy-nine.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art