Paper short abstract:

Representations of the Buddhas in medieval Japanese painting embodied hopes. Far less studied is religious imagery of demons and malevolent spirits that rendered negative agencies like resentments. By making the invisible visible, such representations allowed for their grasping and their taming.

Paper long abstract:

The dynamics of the gaze in painting has now been robustly theorized. Today, visual analysis of art from anywhere and any period requires considerations of who illustrates, who is illustrated, who controls, and who is controlled. For example, retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa (1127-1192), who was a famous collector of illustrated handscrolls, pursued an innovative view of the world undergoing seismic political shifts that threatened his traditional, imperial hold on power. Of particular interest is the portrayal of demons and malevolent spirits in scrolls of his era, which served a particular function in these works as conveyors of undesirable energies or human traits.

This paper analyzes images from Go-Shirakawa's era , focusing on the painting set Hekijae (Extermination of Evil). This work has been understood as scenes of good vanquishing evil. But put in the context of didactic tales and Chinese legends, its divinities originally had demonic qualities. Thus, the work's subject consists of conflicts between entities that have powers of both good and evil. The outcome can then be understood to be the restoration of a world order with the defeat of one over the other. This battle imagery overlaps with ideas about the Ashura of the Rokudō (Six Realms of Rebirth), and warrior literature. For Go-Shirakawa, who is thought to have commissioned the work, the divinities and demons that fought day and night were none other than the emerging-class of warriors, who were at times necessary, but also troublesome for his attempts to rule.　

Human agency and object agency combine here in the process of reception and patron/artist intention. Although we understand well the ideals of compassion and grace conveyed by depictions of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas, what is the affective agency of these renderings of unfortunate creatures restrained and punished, or suffering and threatening demonic beings? For these works' commissioners and viewers—members of the ruling class who could not escape their times of warfare and disasters—such enchained figuration of supernatural creatures, trapped in their cages that was the artistic work, were arguably ideal partners in mediating the volatile gaps between ideals and realities.