Some temples in the Echigo area of Niigata Prefecture possess magnificent frescos, statues and carved ceilings crafted by Ishikawa Uncho, also known as the "Michelangelo of Echigo". You can find these in Echigo's Eirinji Temple and Saifukuji Temple located near Uonuma City. “Michelangelo of Echigo” he is called. His real name is Ishikawa Uncho (1814-1883) and he lived in Japan.      

Above:  A  carving  in  the  Uncho  Ishikawa  ceiling  

The Michelangelo of Echigo  

Born in Edo (now Tokyo) the Japanese Michelangelo stayed for thirteen years at Eirinji Temple, a 500-year old zen temple in the province of Echigo, now part of Niigata Prefecture.

Legend tells us that he came to Eirinji on the condition that he was given “good sake and chisels for life”, a seemingly unusual deal for a temple.

Ishikawa was known to like sake and gambling, and he also liked the local beauties and some of them might have become models for his sculptures. The temple’s frescos show vivid expressions of some girls who play instruments and look anything but otherworldly. Perhaps because of, his exuberant life style, he created a great number of fantastic wood carvings.

Ishikawa’s masterpiece, however, is his carved ceiling at Saifukuji Temple seen below.

 

Saifukuji is a Soto Zen Buddhist temple and a pilgrimage destination of followers of this school of Buddhism. The carving depicts the story of Dogen-zenji who encountered an aggressive tiger while walking in China where he went to further his Buddhist education. According to legend his walking stick transformed into a dragon, said to be his guardian animal, which saved the priest from the claws of the tiger.

A massive fire-spewing dragon is chasing the tiger through the woods and across a river and literally off the ceiling. This carving is painted colorfully whereas the wooden lintels and the plaster work which extend the artwork from the ceiling onto the walls were left unpainted. One gets lost in the exquisite details of this work trying to “carve” it into their memory as photography is usually forbidden.

Ishikawa spent six years on all the carvings and decoration for this temple while Michelangelo took only four years for painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

 

Above:  A  carving  in  the  Uncho  Ishikawa  ceiling  

What distinguishes the work of Uncho most of all is the enormous detail he puts into his work, rather like a god who has all the infinite knowledge and abilities to make life from raw material. The figures and trees and waves are carved well behind them, rounding them out, yet remaining part of the integrated whole, not separate pieces…just as life on earth is an integrated interactive whole. In the YNH Uncho a turtle is swimming under a wave, He is fully carved within the wave above him.  

Above:  The  Turtle  in  the  Uncho  Lintel  of  the  Yuko  Nii  Foundation  

Below:  Uncho  lintel  carving  Saifukuji Temple  

Above:  Dragon  in  the  Uncho  lintel  of  the  Yuko  Nii  Foundation  

Below:  Uncho  Lintel at Saifukuji Temple  

Above:  Wave  in  the  Uncho  lintel  of  the  Yuko  Nii  Foundation  

Below:  Wave  in  Uncho  Lintel at Saifukuji Temple  

Below:  Identical  sinuosity  in  Uncho  ceiling at Saifukuji

The lintel carving of a dragon crossing a river in the collection of the Yuko Nii Foundation probably depicts the story of Dogen-zenji This carving is unpainted like the extensions of the colorfully paimted Saifukuji wooden lintels and the plaster work which extend the Uncho artwork from the ceiling onto the walls.

The Ishikawa ceiling, commissioned by the temple’s priest at the time and completed in 1867, is in the temple’s main hall, the Kaisando. The hall serves to perform memorial rites in honor of the various priests of this temple and of the first Soto Zen master of Japan, Dogen-zenji.

The carving depicts the story of Dogen-zenji who encountered an aggressive tiger while walking in China where he went to further his Buddhist education. According to legend his walking stick transformed into a dragon, said to be his guardian animal, which saved the priest from the claws of the tiger.

A massive fire-spewing dragon is chasing the tiger through the woods and across a river and literally off the ceiling. This carving is painted colorfully whereas the wooden lintels and the plaster work which extend the artwork from the ceiling onto the walls were left unpainted like the YNF lintel.

 

The  Story  in  the  YNF  Lintel  

The  Yuko  Ni  Foundation  also  has  a  good  collection  of  Japanese  scrolls,  ceramics,  lacquer  and  even  a  complete  suit  of  armor.