About Jiun Aoki

Jiun Aoki was a Japanese Buddhist monk and artist. He served as head priest at Daihon-zan Myōson-ji (大本山妙尊寺) in Mie Prefecture, Sōhon-zan Ryūkaku-ji (総本山龍覚寺) in Yamanashi Prefecture, and Myōkai-ji (妙海寺) in Yamaguchi Prefecture.
Maruyama Ōkyo by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi.

Buddhist artists – The creative Buddha Mind

During the Pre-iconic phase (5th–1st century BCE) artists were reluctant to depict the Buddha anthropomorphically, and developed sophisticated aniconic symbols to avoid doing so (even in narrative scenes where other human figures would appear). This tendency remained as late as the 2nd century CE in the southern parts of India, in the of the Amaravati School. In Tibet the vast majority of surviving artworks created before the mid-20th century are dedicated to the depiction .