Takugen Sōshō (Japanese, 1597–1685), Screen with Zen Couplets, about 1680. Edo period (1615–1868).
Folding screen with ink on silk, and gold leaf; overall: 68 1/4 x 148 1/4 in.
Denver Art Museum: Gift of Kimiko and John Powers, 1982.195

image height: 50 3/8 in, 127.9525 cm; image width: 15 3/8 in, 39.0525 cm; overall height: 66 in, 167.64 cm; overall width: 148 1/4 in, 376.555 cm

Panels 1,2: What a good glass cup! Don't conceal your voice when you meet someone. Written by old man who carves the dark. Panels 3,4: Everyone has a life destiny. Since the beginning, crime can be monstrous. Panels 5,6: If one does not pull the plow and drag the rake, then he has to oil-fry food with a cauldron (alternate translation: or he will be fried in an oil cauldron). Written by old man who carves the dark. Seal: purple clouds coming from the east (seal is not clear).

Arts of Asia

Arts of Asia

Takugen Sosho
Japanese, 1597-1685
Screen with Zen Couplets
About 1680, Edo Period 
Folding screen with ink on silk; gold leaf
Gift of Kimiko and John Powers
1982.195

Takugen Sosho was the 183rd abbot of the Daitokuji, a Buddhist temple founded in Kyoto by the Rinzai Zen sect, who trace their spiritual lineage to Linji Yixuan in China. Calligraphy can be a form of Zen meditation, where the spontaneous quality of the brushwork reveals the calligrapher's character, and the content of the written passages reveals one's depth and clarity of understanding. On this screen three Zen couplets, written on pairs of adjoining panels, express Takugen's spiritual realizations and instructions:

What a good glass cup!
Don't conceal your voice when you meet someone.

Everyone has a life destiny,
Since the beginning, crime can be monstrous. 

If one does not pull the plow or rake, 
Then he must oil-fry food with a cauldron.

(Translation by Sylvia Chan)

The calligraphy is surrounded by gold leaf, which would have shone brilliantly in candlelight. Takugen's signature seal reads "Written by an Old Man who Carves the Dark," which may refer to Daitokuji's dim temple precincts or to Takugen's search for enlightenment.