Enku

A Buddhist monk in the early Edo period. Born in Takegahana, Mino Province (Kaminakajima-cho, Hashima City, Gifu Prefecture). He entered the Buddhist priesthood at a young age and is said to have studied Shugendo as a Tendai monk, but he appears to have had a free faith that was not bound by any particular sect or school. He was always traveling around the country, and his footsteps stretched from Hokkaido in the north to Shikoku in the west and Chugoku, so it is believed he covered almost the entire country of Japan. In 1695 (Genroku 8), he returned to his hometown of Mino, and died at the age of 64 on July 15 of the same year at Miroku-ji Temple, which he had restored himself.

He was especially famous for his sculptures; he vowed to create 120,000 statues in his lifetime, but to date, several hundred have been discovered. His statues range in size from the 3.5-meter-tall Nio statue at Arako Kannonji Temple in Nagoya to small wooden Buddha statues measuring just 2-3 centimeters, and the types of statues are also diverse. He often carved his statues from logs roughly cut with a chisel into quarters or eighths of a log, making use of the limitations of the material and leaving the chisel marks as they were, creating statues with bold, straightforward contours and lines. At first glance, they may seem amateurish, but compared to the completely formulaic style of professional Buddhist sculptors at the time, his works are the product of his fervent faith and have a fresh charm, are deeply moving, and have a simple beauty and strength that is relevant even today.

[Akio Sato May 19, 2017]

"Photographs by Hideo Goto, Masafumi Izawa, 'Enku - Cubist of Edo' (1980, Shogakukan)"

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

江戸初期の僧侶(そうりょ)。美濃(みの)国竹ヶ鼻（岐阜県羽島市上中島町）に生まれる。若くして仏門に入り、天台僧として修験道(しゅげんどう)を学んだともいうが、一宗一派にとらわれぬ自由な信仰の持ち主であったらしい。つねに諸国遍歴の旅を続け、その足跡は、北は北海道から、西は四国、中国にもわたっており、ほとんど日本全土に及んだかと思われる。1695年（元禄8）故郷美濃へ帰り、自ら中興した弥勒寺(みろくじ)で同年7月15日、64歳で没した。

　彼をとくに有名にしたのはその造像で、一生に12万体造像を発願したが、現在までに二千数百体が発見されている。大は名古屋荒子観音寺の3.5メートル余の仁王像、小は2、3センチメートルの木端(こっぱ)仏まで種々に及び、像種もさまざまである。丸木を四分、八分した楔(くさび)形の、荒く鑿(のみ)を入れただけの材からつくりあげることが多く、原材における制約をそのままに利用し、また鑿の痕(あと)をそのままに残すというように、大胆直截(ちょくせつ)な輪郭や線条で構成された彫像をつくりあげた。一見稚拙なようだが、当時のまったく形式化した作風の職業仏師たちの作に比し、熱烈な信仰の所産だけに、新鮮な魅力を備えており、激しく心を打つものがあって、現代にも通ずる素朴な美と力強さが認められる。

［佐藤昭夫　2017年5月19日］

『後藤英夫写真、飯沢匡文『円空――江戸のキュービスト』（1980・小学館）』

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