Nakahara Nantenbo's Wall-Facing Daruma (Menpeki Daruma 面壁達磨)

[Iaido dude]

Nakahara Nantenbo (1839-1925), Buddhist name Toju Zenchu (Complete Devotion), was in the last 17 years of his life the Exalted Master of the main temple of Moyoshin-ji of the Rinzai sect.

 

A painting theme brushed extensively by Nantenbo is the "wall-facing Daruma" or "menpeki Daruma 面壁達磨," referring to the ancient First Patriarch's nine years of meditation facing a wall. As early as the fourteenth century in Japan, Zen artists playfully depicted the sage's silhouette by means of a sing, meandering outline in a technique known as ippitsuga (one-stroke painting). Nantenbo's conception of the menpeki theme is even more abbreviated than those of his predecessor's. By eliminating the distinction between the head and shoulders, he further distilled the silhouette of the First Patriarch. A simple inverted U-shape is used to connote Daruma's body, and a horizontal ellipse is meant to imply his knees beneath monkish robes. The abstract nature of the figure only accentuates the quality of the ink, applied in a single sweeping stroke of great energy. 

 

The calligraphy exhibits Nantenbo's legendary Zen humor.

 

面壁乃祖師の姿者 山城能八幡野 者たの宇里可 茄子比釆

 

The shape of Daruma facing the wall, is it like a melon or an eggplant from the fields of Hachiman in Yamashiro?

 

Was Nantenbō simply inept at pictorial representation, or was he a visionary who pushed Zen painting further into a realm of dynamic epigraphs and emblems? The inscription on his menpeki painting offers a playful acknowledgment of the image's ambiguous nature.

 

It is likely, in fact, that Nantenbō intentionally challenges people's rigid preconceptions about the nature of Daruma. In his autobiography he notes that while he receives many requests for paintings of Daruma, his images are often criticized for looking like owls or octopi. "Very interesting," the old priest observes. "People talk as if they have seen Daruma, but who has seen the original Daruma?"

 

Provenance: Nagaragawa Gallery (Tokyo). Personal collection.