Daruma

It is no coincidence that of the many traditional subjects of Buddhist figure painting, it was Daruma, or Bodhidharma, the Indian founder of Zen Buddhism, who was singled out for treatment with Western-style shading and a suggestion of three-dimensional modelling. The Western elements helped underscore his exotic, foreign appearance. It is assumed that Nobukata was a Christian trained in one of the Jesuit seminaries in Kyushu; he may later have converted to Buddhism. He is credited with some of the best Western-style paintings of the late 16th and early 17th centuries; several paintings bear his seal.