Ink Drawing of Rāhula (The Son of Buddha）

Zuikō Chingyū (1743-1822) was a Sōtō Zen monk during the late Edo period. He was born in Higo Province. In Bunka 4 (1817), he opened Manshōji Temple in Nagoya at the request of Tokugawa Naritomo, the Daimyō (Japanese military lord) of Owari domain. In Bunsei 3 (1820), he retired to Keiunken in the same province. He was a Sōtō Zen monk who excelled in calligraphy and painting, representing the latter half of the Edo period. In addition to his many calligraphies and paintings, he also made illustrations for Dōgen’s biographies, such as “Teiho Kenzeikizue” and “Eihei Dōgen Zenji Gyōjōzue,” and he contributed to the popularization of Dōgen’s pictorial biographies.

Rāhula was one of the sixteen arhats, and he was the son of Śākyamuni before his ordination. Later he was ordained and became one of the Ten Great Disciples of Buddha. Among the ten great disciples of the Buddha, he followed the precepts down to the last detail.

In this painting, Rāhula has split his abdomen open with both hands, and the face of the Buddha can be seen through the split. This painting expresses that the Buddha nature exists within oneself.
The inscription is in a five-character quatrain. It was painted in Bunsei 2 (1819), when Chingyū was 77 years old.