Session VII: Artist Nuns and Patron Nuns
 

"Shozan Gen'yo, Imperial Princess and Abbess of Rinkyu-ji"

-- Elizabeth Lillehoj --

DePaul University
elilleho@wppost.depaul.edu
 

        Shozan Gen'yo (1634-1727) -- an imperial princess and a Rinzai Zen nun -- founded the Zen nunnery, Rinkyu-ji in Kyoto. Gen'yo was one of the many children of Emperor Gomizunoo (1596-1680; r. 1611-29) who took religious vows, lived at monzeki, and participated in the flowering of arts in 17th-century Kyoto. In this paper, I explore the context in which Gen'yo became a nun and the place she held in religious and artistic circles at court and within Zen imperial convent culture.

        Gen'yo devoted virtually her entire life to religious pursuits and never married. In 1665, at the age of 32, Gen'yo invited the Obaku priest Ryukei Shosen (1602-70) to the palace, and received bosatsukai from him. At age 47 -- one month after her  father's death in 1680 -- Gen'yo visited her brother Prince Seishin (1639-96), who was the monzeki at Daikaku-ji, and there took the vows of a Zen nun. She then transformed her mountain villa at Shugakuin, where Gomizunoo had built a residence for her, into the nunnery, Rinkyu-ji.

        Gen'yo remained active at Rinkyu-ji to the age of 94, saying prayers for her deceased father; composing verse, calligraphy, and painting; and raising the abandoned children she took in. She frequently painted images of Kannon in monochrome ink, seemingly following the example of Zen monk-painters of the Muromachi period. Although a number of Gen'yo's brothers made painting , there is not the same preponderance of religious subjects in their work as in hers. Numerous art objects once owned by Gen'yo are preserved at Rinkyu-ji, some by her own hand and others made by members of her family. These objects suggest that Gen'yo kept her connections with the imperial family, even after becoming a nun.

        In analyzing information on Gen'yo  -- gathered from written records of her life and artifacts that she once owned -- researchers must grapple with a number of questions. Why did Gen'yo, like so many women from elite families, choose to become a Zen nun? To what extent did Gen'yo's life change due to her taking the tonsure? What place did she hold in religious circles of her day? IN what ways did women experience religious an art historian perhaps the most pressing questions are: why was Gen'yo so actively involved with art and how was her artistic practice informed by religious belief?

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