Mokukenren from Great Disciples of Buddha

Mokukenren (Maudgalyayana) — one of the Ten Great Disciples of the historical Buddha, renowned for his supernatural powers and his rescue of his mother from hell — appears in this 1939 print from Munakata's "Two Bodhisattva and Ten Great Disciples" series. Mokukenren's identity as the disciple associated with miraculous intervention gave Munakata a subject of concentrated spiritual energy: a figure whose defining characteristic was the power to bridge realms, to descend into darkness and return with the lost. This quality of active, intervening compassion suited Munakata's bold, direct carving style.