Tenjin Traveling to China
Attributed to Tōsai Japanese
Inscription traditionally attributed to Kisei Reigen Japanese
Not on view
The statesman-poet Sugawara no Michizane (845–903) is shown here in his deified form, Tenjin, on a visit to China to meet the influential Chan (Zen) monk Wuzhun Shifan (1178–1249). He wears a Daoist robe and a hood of semitransparent gauze, and a bag hangs from his shoulder. The inscribed poem by the Zen poet-monk Kisei Reigen reads:
径山密付破袈裟 丞相詩禅験作家
不是庭前無柏樹 如何袖裡有梅花
At Jingshan Monastery, the tattered robes
of a monk were esoterically transmitted.
Grand Chancellor [Michizane] composed a poem
on Chan to test the master [Wuzhun Shifan].
It is not that the front garden
has no cypress trees;
But why are there plum blossoms
tucked into his sleeve?
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