Page 237 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

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Sengai Gibon (1751-1837) Sengai Gibon (1751 -1837)
Frog in Zen Meditation Circle, Triangle, Square
Hanging scroll; ink on paper Hanging scroll; ink on paper
7
40.3X53.8(i5 /8X2iV8) 28.4x48.1 (nVsxiSVs)
Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo
Illustrated page 216 Illustrated page 216

• At first glance simply a delightful • Perhaps the best known of all
image of a smiling frog, the painting Zenga, this elegant work is suggestive
is given deeper levels of meaning by of a great variety of meanings. Read-
2 3 6 the inscription, which reads "If by ing from right to left (as required by
sitting in Zen meditation a human Sengai's signature at the left), a circle,
becomes a Buddha." This incomplete a triangle, and a square are the only
thought implies a further phrase: elements of the composition. A sim-
"then I, who always sit this way, ple circle executed in one continuous
should have become one long ago." In stroke, called an ensó, is a frequent
Japan the natural sitting posture of subject in Zen painting. The circle
a frog is thought to resemble that of a may represent the infinite or ultimate
Zen monk's seated meditation posi- reality, the formless form: the entire
tion. One implication here is that the universe is contained within it. The
mere act of sitting will lead to an triangle may suggest the beginning of
enlightenment experience. But the all forms, out of which comes the
Rinzai-school Zen master continually square, which is the triangle doubled.
exhorts his students to exert maxi- The possibilities are endless, lending
mum effort and emphasizes that Zen this work a universality that has
meditation is anything but passive made it a Zen icon (in itself a contra-
waiting. Indeed it is hard to imagine diction). In any event, the progres-
a more active mode of meditation sively softer ink tone and the subtle
than Rinzai Zen, particularly when overlapping of forms suggest a con-
the student is near a breakthrough. ceptual underpinning that is far from
At the same time, the student is accidental.
warned against becoming attached to A possible inspiration for these geo-
the idea of sitting; in Zen training metric forms may be found in stupas
one is discouraged from attachment made of five parts, which include a
to any set course or concept. Zen cube, a globe, and a pyramidal finial
practice, or total mindfulness, is not that appears triangular in profile.
restricted to seated meditation.
These forms represent the five ele-
The frog looks out with a blissful ments that are the basis of all mater-
expression; he is depicted with the ial things, the human organism, and
utmost economy of line. The stroke of ultimately the entire universe (the
calligraphy descends and then swings body of the cosmic Buddha).
to the right, forming a suggested The inscription above Sengai's seal
ground plane for the frog. Sengai's
reads "Fuyó saisho Zenkutsu" (The
signature at the right perfectly bal- first Zen cavern [temple] in Japan).
ances a seemingly effortless composi- Sengai was the i23rd abbot of Shó-
tion that perhaps was carefully con- fukuji in Hakata, northern Kyushu,
ceived, whether consciously or not.
The calligraphy is without pretense Japan's oldest Rinzai Zen temple,
founded
by Myóan Eisai in
1911. RTS
and written to be easily read by the
layperson to whom this masterpiece
was probably given. RTS