Yamaoka Tesshu Calligraphy: "See a Single Flower Drift Down to a Cup of Wine" (一片花流酒一杯)

[Iaido dude]

Yamaoka Tesshu (山岡 鉄舟) was born in Edo June 10, 1836 and died July 19, 1888. As a master swordsman, lay Zen master, and prolific calligrapher/painter, he embodied the integrated practice of Ken Zen Sho.

The inscription is the poignant last verse of a quatrain by Xiong Rudeng (熊儒登), a Tang Dynasty official and poet who served in Western Sichuan, called "Presented to Vice Minister Dou at a Banquet at Quchi." The inscription is the poignant last verse of a quatrain by Xiong Rudeng (熊儒登), a scholar-official and poet, called "Presented to Vice Minister Dou at a Banquet at Quchi." He lived around the time of Emperor Xianzong of Tang's Yuanhe era (806-820). After passing the imperial examination, he became a Jinshi (a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations). He served as an official in the Western Sichuan provincial government and was a close friend of Bai Juyi and Liu Yuxi, frequently exchanging poems. He was a prolific writer, producing many poems, but only one collection has survived to this day. Many of these poems are exchanges of poems, containing numerous beautiful lines. Some of these lines are sincere and moving, and were widely recited in his time.

 

It is easy to understand why this poem would have appealed to Yamaoka's Zen sensibility:

水自山阿繞坐來, 珊瑚台上木綿開。
欲知舉目無情罰, 一片花流酒一杯。

Water flows around the mountainside, and cotton blossoms bloom on the coral terrace.
If you wish to know the merciless punishment before your eyes, see a single flower drift down to a cup of wine.

 

Edited February 22 by Iaido dude