Rakan

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Rakan (Sanskrit: arhat) are ascetics who guard and proclaim Buddhist law on earth in the period between the death of Shakyamuni, the historical Buddha, and the coming of Maitreya, the Buddha of the future. They have inspired some of the freest and most lively depictions of the human figure in Japanese art. Old age and the struggle for salvation have left their mark, but in the figures' gnarled faces and bodies is a strong expression of the uniqueness of each individual. Because rakan achieved enlightenment through rigorous individual effort and meditation, they appealed to practitioners of Zen (Chinese: Chan) Buddhism and became a popular icon in thirteenth-century Japan. They are conventionally portrayed in groups of sixteen, eighteen, or five hundred. This statue could well have come from such a group of sixteen, of the sort that was often placed in the upper story of a sanmon-style gate at a Zen temple.

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