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impressions brilliantly rendered in virtuoso 221
brushwork from an inherited pattern some three Images of the First Patriarch of Zen have been
hundred years old. The combination of gravity Bokkei Saiyo produced from as early as the eighth century in
and virtuosity is unusual and recalls, not in active 1452-1473 China. Bodhidharma (J: Daruma, trad. c. 470-
appearance but in method, the art of the great c. 543) was an Indian prince, and the twenty-
Southern Song master Liang Kai (act. early DARUMA eighth patriarch of Indian Buddhism in the lineage
±3th century). S.E.L. beginning with Sakyamuni Buddha. His journey
c. 1460 to China eventually brought him to the Shaolin
Japanese monastery in southern China, where, as legend
hanging scroll; ink on paper
2
no x 58.3 (43 /4 x 23) recounts, he remained seated in meditation before
two seals of the artist a cave wall for nine years. This archetypal image
inscription with signature and seal by Ikkyu Sojun of meditation was most memorably depicted by
(1394-1481) Sesshu (see "Shen Zhou and the Literati Style/'
reference: Washington 1988, no. 81 Zen (C: Chan) traces its origins to Daruma's
teachings, which called upon adherents to single-
Shinju-an, Daitoku-ji, Kyoto
Important Cultural Property mindedly seek the Buddha nature within, dispens-
ing with religious rituals and even with study of
the sutras. Transmission of this teaching was from
380 CIRCA 1492
