Page 36 - japanese and korean art Utterberg Collection Christie's March 22 2022

涅槃寂静 | THE COLLECTION OF DAVID AND NAYDA UTTERBERG (LOTs 1-20)

7

GYOKUEN BONPO (JAPAN CA. 1348-AFTER 1420)
Orchids and Rock
Signed Gyokuen..., sealed Gyokuen, Chisokuga and another seal
Hanging scroll; ink on paper
28¬ x 12¬ in. (72.6 x 34 cm.)

$200,000-300,000
玉畹梵芳筆 蘭石図

PROVENANCE:
London Gallery, Tokyo, 23 Aug. 2004
LITERATURE:
Julia Meech, “David Scott Utterberg (1946–2019): A Very Private
Collector” Impressions 42, Part Two of a Double Issue (2021) www.
japaneseartsoc.org, pp. 77–99, fig. 19.

Bonpo was an elite Zen monk of the first quarter of the fifteenth
century. At some time between 1405 and 1409, he became abbot of
the prestigious Kyoto monastery Ken’nin-ji. In 1413, he was made
abbot of Nanzen-ji, the powerful Zen temple in the eastern hills
of Kyoto. He was closely associated with the shogun Yoshimochi,
who attended Bonpo’s inaugural ceremony at Nanzen-ji. The
names of two Nanzen-ji subtemples—the Chisoku-ken and the
Shorin-in—appear on two of Bonpo’s seals; he later retired to
Toro-an, a subtemple he built within the grounds of Nanzen-
ji. At age 72, in the spring of 1420, he was forced to leave
Kyoto abruptly. He withdrew to a small temple in nearby Omi
province (Shiga Prefecture) and was not heard from again. There
is speculation that he ran afoul of the shogun on the political issue
of ecclesiastical versus secular powers. He presumably died shortly
thereafter.