Hanshan and Shide (Japanese: Kanzan and Jittoku)

Itō Jakuchū

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Hanshan and Shide (active late 8th–early 9th century) were Chan Buddhist monks who held low-level positions at Guoqingsi, a temple on China’s sacred Mount Tiantai. Turned away from the viewer here, Hanshan (“Cold Mountain”) was a reclusive monk-poet. Shide, his constant companion, carries a broom indicating his role as the temple’s janitor. The pair of figures came to represent an iconoclastic aspect of Chan (Japanese: Zen) monastic practice and was a popular theme in Japanese painting. In the Buddhist tradition, Hanshan and Shide were also honored as emanations of the bodhisattvas Monju and Fugen (Sanskrit: Manjushri and Samantabhadra), representing the virtues of wisdom and compassion. The inscription refers to this association: “One is the Bodhisattva of the Great Path. The other the Patriarch of the Great Buddha. What evidence is there? A broken broom, a tattered scripture, and unrhymed verse” (trans. Aaron Rio).

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