“The Way of the patriarchs spans a thousand years”
Yinyuan Longqi Chinese
Not on view
In the mid-seventeenth century, Yinyuan was abbot of the Chan monastery Wanfusi in Fujian Province. After the fall of the Ming dynasty, Yinyuan left China for Japan, where he was warmly received by adherents of Zen hungry for new teachings from the continent. Yinyuan (known as Ingen in Japan) and his disciples founded a new school of Zen in Japan, which came to be known as Ōbaku—the Japanese pronunciation of Huangbo, home of the original Wanfusi. Yinyuan was a gifted calligrapher, and he helped to establish a distinctive manner of Ōbaku calligraphy in Japan. This scroll reads: “The Way of the patriarchs spans a thousand years.”
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