Mount Fuji (富士山) painting and calligraphy by Kobayashi Taigen

[Iaido dude]

Kobayashi Taigen (1938-) is the Abbot of Daitoku-ji temple. This painting and calligraphy pay homage to the lay Zen master, swordsman, and calligrapher Yamaoka Tesshu. 

 

Mount Fuji (富士山)

Translation (John Stevens):

Perfect when clear, Harete yoshi

Perfect when cloudy, kumoritemo yoshi

Mt. Fuji's, fuji no yama

Original form, moto no sugata was

Never changes. kawarazari keri

Mt. Fuji is depicted in a single, dynamic stroke of wet ink transitioning to "flying white," accompanied by a famous poem written by Yamaoka Tesshu. It tells the story of Yamaoka's own enlightenment experience. After three years of training under Seijo, abbot of Ryutaku-ji in Izu, Seijo pronounced, "Your study here is finished." The puzzled Tesshu did not know what to make of this declaration because he still had many unresolved questions. As he pondered this enigma on his way back to Tokyo, Mt. Fuji suddenly came to view. "Oh!" Tesshu realized. When Tesshu ran back to thank Seijo for his teaching, he found the abbot waiting for him. Underlying the surface phenomena of duality (clear vs. cloudy) lies an "original form" that is immutable.

The signature is stamped as "Obaishu Taigen of Daitoku-ji Temple," and on the inside of the lid of the original box is inscribed "Self-praise of Mt. Fuji, a beautiful day. Obaishu Taigen of Daitoku-ji Temple."

 

 

This one by Yamoka Tesshu is from the Zensho-an temple founded by him.

 

[Iaido dude]

Here is the Japanese waka poem. The first character is kanji, followed by hiragana (I may be off a bit on the last line).

 

晴れて佳し

庫もりても佳し

富二の山

元の姿は

变わらザリケリ

[Bugyotsuji]

Try for line 2

曇りても佳し

 

and hiragana is used for the okurigana

変わらざりけり

[Iaido dude]

Thanks, Piers. Wonderful. I had left this without the original calligraphy brushed by Kobayashi. Then today, my wife noticed that 佳 appears in both of the first lines (so there are a few additional kanji). It is the second character of her Chinese name. And of course she had to let me know that their is a calligraphy in "our" collection with her name in it--twice no less!  

Edited September 29 by Iaido dude