Takahashi Deishu's Mount Fuji Painting with Inscription (Translation help please)

[Iaido dude]

Takahashi Deishu (高橋 泥舟; 1835-1903) was a samurai, calligrapher, author, and an important compatriot of his contemporaries Yamaoka Tesshu and Katsu Kaishu during the transition from the Takugawa Shogunate to the Meiji Emperor. HE He was born the second son of the hatamoto Yamaoka Masanari (山岡 正業). He succeeded to his mother's side and was adopted by Takahashi Kanetsugu (高橋 包承). The Yamaoka family was well known for the Jitokuin school (自得院流, Jitokuin-ryū) of spearmanship, and he trained under his elder brother Yamaoka Seizan (山岡 静山; 1829-1855), who was regarded as a great master in the use of the spear. In 1855, Seizan died of illness at the age of 26, and Ono Tetsutarō, a student of his, married into the Yamaoka family. Taking the family name, he became Yamaoka Tesshu. Takahashi Deishu served as a minister in the district of Ise, retiring from public life soon after the Meiji Restoration of 1868 to devote himself to poetry, calligraphy, and painting. During the time he was studying calligraphy under Nagatani Kawakane. he stated, "In extending the brush head instead of the spear, one must reveal the truth of enlightenment."

 

This aged and worn work shows a version of Takahashi's Mount Fuji as a zenga subject that stretches back along the dharma transmission lineage to Nantembo and his disciples including Yamaoka. Interestingly, no two examples of his Mount Fuji bear the same inscription (see below). I can't get a fix on the translation given his highly idiosyncratic script and the lack of a source for translation of any similar work.

 

Reference.

Ken Zen Sho: The Zen Calligraphy and Painting of Yamaoka Tesshu (Katsu Kaishu, Takahashi Deishu, Terayama Tanchu). Bankasha International Corporation (2014)