Focus on Ippen Shōnin Eden and discuss the The two versions of the emakimono.
The emakimono narrating the life of Ippen and collectively known as Ippen Shōnin Eden are divided into two lineages: those from the version known as Shōkai (聖 戒) (disciple and younger brother or nephew of Ippen), made in 1299, and those from the version referred to as Sōshun (宗 俊) (pupil of Taa (他阿), himself a disciple of Ippen), completed between 1304 and 1307, and now lost. The oldest and most famous of the Shōkai versions is known as Ippen Hijiri-e (一遍 聖 絵) and of the Sōshun versions is called Yugyō Shōnin Engi-e (遊行上人縁起絵) or Ippen Shōnin Ekotoba den (一遍上人絵詞伝).Various direct or indirect copies of the Shōkai and Sōshun versions exist, such as the Shinkō-ji copy (1323), rather burlesque in the vein of the otogi-zōshi movement, the Miei-dō copy (second half of the 14th or early 15th century), close to the original of 1299, and the Kōmyō-ji copy (in Yamagata, made in 1594 by Kanō Eitoku), aiming at the extraordinary. The exhaustive list of temples or institutions with a copy today (excluding private collections and fragments) is:
in line with the Shōkai version at Kankikō-ji (Kyoto): the Shinzenkō-ji copy (Kyoto, the so-called Miei-dō-bon, now stored in the Sonkyōkaku bunko library and in the Kitamura family collection), the Daigan-ji copy (Niigata) and the Fujita Art Museum copy (Osaka);in line with the Sōshun version at Shōjōkō-ji (Fujisawa; the original version has been lost, but the temple itself has a copy): the Konren-ji copies (Kyoto, two copies), and the copies known as Shinkō-ji (Kobe),  Kōmyō-ji (Yamagata), Senshō-ji (Niigata), Raigō-ji (Niigata), Konkō-ji (Kyoto), Jōshō-ji (Onomichi) and Kondai-ji (Nagano); according to H. Sasaki, there are twenty complete or incomplete copies of this version, including the ones in private collections.Biographies probably occasionally mix Ippen's life with those of other monks such as Hōnen, especially in relation to his apprenticeship at Tendai. Other famous monks also had their biographies depicted in emakimono, including Hōnen and Shinran.
Shōjōkō-ji Niigata Shōkai ink Onomichi Ippen Kobe Kanō Eitoku Osaka Fujita Art Museum Fujisawa Kyoto Nagano otogi-zōshi emakimono Yamagata Kankikō-ji