Fifteen years after Kosetsu Nosu painted the murals, the following article was published in the Dharmadoot (1950), an annual journal of the Maha Bodi Society of India, regarding the artistry of Kosetsu's murals. I believe that this is one of the most persuasive expressions for evaluating Kosetsu's work.

The Mural Paintings of Mūlagandha Kuṭī Vihāra

(By Mr. B. N. Saraswati)

(As published in the July – 1950 (Year – 15, No. 4) edition of Hindi language ‘Dharmadoot’ Journal of Maha Bodhi Society of India, Sarnath Centre, Varanasi)

The charismatic strokes of renowned Japanese Artist Kosetsu Nosu ran on the walls of the Mūlagandha Kuṭī Vihāra for the first time in 1931. After four years’ relentless perseverance, his efforts bore fruit. Today whosoever steps upon the holy land of Sarnath to submit his veneration to the Buddha who illuminated the lamp of Enlightenment in the darkest core of human mind, he couldn’t but appreciate the immortal Artist after seeing the Mural Paintings. The elegance and skilfulness of Mr. Nosu has added positively to the greatness of Sarnath. If the beholders today feel grateful to see the Buddha at this holy place, at the same time they are no less delighted and attracted while inspecting this exquisite piece of Art.

We find the climax of the evolution of Buddhist Era Arts in the Ajanta Paintings. Artist Nosu too had imagined his lively Mural Paintings nearly on the same basis. He was fully successful in this endeavour.

A Nation’s Art is the defining benchmark of its history. We only find written materials through the pages of History but through Arts, we find live picture of a nation’s history. With such an inspiration while fully immersed in the love of the Lord, Artist Nosu has breathed life into his paintings while expressing through his Art the biography of the Buddha and in this artistic scene we are able to understand within a short time the history of centuries. This artistic biography of the Buddha leaves a far greater impact in our hearts in comparison to the biography in the pages of history. These lively paintings today present before our eyes the centuries of ancient history in a refreshingly new manner. That art would be considered more superior and prolific which is more competent in the expression of emotion while remaining independent from physical instruments as much as possible. From this aspect, Nosu’s art seems to be of highest degree in terms of quality and greatness. While bringing to life the scene concerning Siddhārtha’s renunciation of the householder’s life when Yoshodharā and Rāhula were in deep slumber in the King’s Palace, our deep-seated spontaneous emotions were so tenderly portrayed in that picture of Siddhārtha at that momentous time of departure. Similarly, when the picture of Ānanda and the ‘Outcast girl’ comes before our eyes, we understand the intimacy of their hearts while looking at their countenance and expressions. The greatest trait of Art is the expression of the eternal truth. In other words, the shades of nature find expression in the background of every fine-art. Similarly, the success of every painting depends not on the exterior ornamentations but rather it depends on its innateness and spontaneity. Here, two types of artists could be compared, one who puts on golden-coloured ornaments over a maiden’s picture and consider himself among artists. The other is one who gives expressions to the natural and spontaneous beauty of the maiden. The above said principle is not confirmed by the artist belonging to the first category. They lose their objective while getting lost in applying colours over colours. Hence, that artificial beauty slides down from the category of beauty. But from the other type of artist, the natural beauty of the picture is reflected in abundance. Our Nosu belongs to the latter type of Artist. He understood properly the essence of Art or in other words, he is a successful artist. Although we don’t find special ornamentations in his paintings but the expressions of emotions we definitely find in abundance in his paintings. Almost every picture of his is full of emotions. In the picture titled ‘Sujātā’s Porridege’, the emaciated body of the Buddha and Sujata’s porridge offering expressions are expressed in such a way that Sujātā’s whole-hearted commitment towards the offering finds complete expression and is vividly captured. In this way, he went along with the strokes of his paint-brush while deeply immersed in the expressions of emotions. He made use of the colours in such a beautiful way that even today the keen eyes of the beholders do not wish to be deviated from. In truth, the art of Nosu naturally cheers up the onlookers’ hearts with love and devotion towards the Buddha wherein the echo of the immortal artist’s deep devotion is found mixed up often.

The Russian scholar – Tolstoy writes, “Art is a human activity consisting in this, that one man consciously, by means of certain external signs, hands on to others feelings he has lived through, and that other people are infected by these feelings and also experience them.” In reality, Nosu in his life got a strong inspiration of love towards the Buddha and we call him a successful artist because the onlookers through the elegance and skilfulness of Nosu find inspiration of love and devotion towards the Buddha. While speaking of the greatness of an artist, the great Indian artist – Abanindranath Tagore writes, “An artist’s mind can be known from his art. Therefore, we respect artists. Otherwise, what is the benefit of enclosing the Himalaya Mountains within rectangular frames measuring many inches and hanging it over the walls? We are interested in the Himalaya’s mind, what it is saying. The work of the artist is to understand the minds of inanimate objects through one’s mind and leave an imprint of the same in the minds of the onlookers.” The confirmation of these words is reflected in the arts of Mr. Nosu. He doesn’t imprint in our mind anything devoid of the truth while bringing to life the incidents of the Buddha’s Life. Instead, the contours of truthfulness within which he imprinted the biography of the Buddha through his paintings could be a source of inspiration and veneration for any sympathiser of art. Actually, by seeing those pictures, it is implicit and evident that prior to becoming an Artist, Nosu has to be a true Buddhist in the first place. Having said that, what else could be the sign of his success? At last, we shall say that, if it is written in the chronicles of the past that Ashoka has left no stone unturned in the propagation of the Buddha’s Message, then in the present context we have to write in these pages that Mr. Nosu through the art of Mural Paintings has not left any lesser interest and attraction on the human mind while expressing his devotion and love towards the Buddha.

* Tolstoy’s quoted view about Arts at the start of the last Para is available on the internet and taken directly from the web (link attached along).

*If you find some Hindi speaking student/scholar (I mean native speaker), then please confirm the translation for accuracy. I am not a native speaker myself. .