This ink painting on silk shows a courtesan, dressed in men’s clothes, riding a white elephant, the bodhisattva Fugen’s vehicle. As the tale goes, in the 12th century, an extremely wise courtesan skilled in poetry lived in Eguchi. One night, the monk Saigyō asked for shelter at her inn. She initially refused him, saying she didn’t want him to become attached to the worldly space of the brothel. When she did eventually let him in, they engaged in a long poetic exchange. Ultimately, the courtesan revealed herself to be Fugen. In another tale, a traveling priest met the courtesan of Eguchi, and saw a vision of her true form as a resplendent Bodhisattva every time he closed his eyes. Feminist scholar Etsuko Terasaki argues that the tale both reiterates and challenges medieval Japanese Buddhism’s association of womanhood with spiritual contamination. Read more about Japanese courtesans’ association with the divine.

Here, a woman dressed as a man replaces Fugen, a bodhisattva—a being among those considered enlightened in Buddhism—who symbolizes learning as a path to awakening and typically rides an elephant. The painting teaches the lesson of impermanence through the petals falling from the lotus flower the woman holds. It also alludes to the legend of Eguchi, a 12th-century courtesan who, following an encounter with a Buddhist monk-poet called Saigyō, revealed herself to be a manifestation of Fugen.