juugyuu　十牛

KEY WORD :　art history / paintings

Ch: Jiuniu. Lit. ten bulls. A Zen 禅 (Ch: chan) allegory in which Buddhist training, from first initiation to final enlightenment, is expressed in terms of a bull being sought, found, and ultimately transcended. The ten bulls or stages of enlightenment are: 1 searching for the bull; 2 seeing the tracks; 3 seeing the bull; 4 catching the bull; 5 taming the bull; 6 riding home on the bull; 7 the bull forgotten --- the self alone; 8 bull and self forgotten represented with an empty circle; 9 returning to the origin; 10 entering the market (i.e. the mundane world) --- meeting *Hotei 布袋 (Ch: Budai). This metaphor for enlightenment can be traced to the ZOUICHI AGONKYOU 増一阿含経 (Sk: Ekottaragame sutra), although in the Soutern Song dynasty, Zen monks expanded the number of steps from eight to ten. Best known of the various illustrated sets of verses (Ten Ox Herding Songs) are those by Kuoan Zhiyuan 廓庵師遠 (ca.1150). In Japan the theme was frequently depicted by painter-priests *gasou 画僧 of the Muromachi period. These early Japanese examples are greatly indebted to copies of Kuoan's text and pictures which may have been reprinted in Japan as early as 1325. The set of ten paintings traditionally attributed to Shuubun 周文 (fl. 1414-63) at Shoukokuji 相国寺 in Kyoto, are perhaps the most famous. The ten bulls theme remained popular with Kanou school *Kanouha 狩野派 painters, and Tomioka Tessai 富岡鉄斎 (1837-1924) also painted the subject. Oxen and herdboys *bokudou bokugyuu 牧童牧牛 paintings are related to the ten bulls theme. Although ox and herdboy paintings, often rendered by Chinese and Japanese ink painters, share iconographic traits as well as the spirit of reclusion, the two subjects are essentially distinct in meaning.

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