Calligraphy hanging scroll by Zen Master Shibayama Zenkei ("By the Mountain Stream, the Frost-covered Leaves are Red 渓邊霜葉紅")

[Iaido dude]

Shibayama Zenkei (1894-1974) was appointed the abbott of Nanzen-ji of the Rinzai sect in 1959 and was one of the most important Zen masters and scholars of the 20th century. He taught at Hanazono University, published the influential commentaries on the Ten Oxherding Pictures and the collection of classic koans called the Mumonkan (Gateless Gate), and taught in America starting 1965 when he was an active Kansho (abbott) at the persuasive invitation of the Zen scholar D.T. Suzuki.

 

Shibayama had a personal appreciation for art, befriending haiga and literati artists and creating his own works. In particular, he had a special admiration for the paintings and calligraphy of Zen Master Hakuin Ekaku. This particular work shows his interest in depicting not only traditional Zen and Buddhist subject matter, but also Japanese folk themes and aspects of everyday life with which he believe he could reach a general audience with his Zen teaching:

渓邊霜葉紅 (keiben sōyō kō)
By the mountain stream, the frost-covered leaves are red

 

In Zen, nature is not viewed as a metaphor for something else; it is viewed as the direct manifestation of the Dharma (Buddhist truth). This phrase captures the essence of "thusness" (tathātā). Unlike Western poetry, which might use the red leaf to symbolize sadness, passing time, or romantic longing, in Zen this line is considered a direct presentation. The stream is just the stream. The frost is just the frost. The red is just the red. Zen emphasizes that enlightenment is not found by escaping the world but by seeing the world clearly, without the overlay of conceptual thought. The brilliance of the red leaves against the cold stream is a moment of reality fully revealed. In Zen, 渓邊霜葉紅 does not carry a symbolic "meaning" to be decoded. It is an expression of non-dual reality. It points to the fact that the natural world—in its stark contrast of cold water and bright leaves—is already the complete expression of enlightenment, requiring no addition, subtraction, or interpretation.

 

Like his contemporary Chuho Sou, his calligraphic style was most influenced by the works of Jiun Onko, whose terse, blunt style of brushwork he highly admired. This is most evident in the dynamic use of "flying white" and the almost agitated energy of the brush as it dances across the composition, leaving the surface with gestural energy resulting in broad open tips of the brush strokes.

 

He had an early seminal experience while attending a lecture by the Zen Master Mamiya Eishu during a time when he was exploring Christianity and other spiritual paths. Eishu saild that it would be nice to be able to cover the whole world in leather and be able to walk anywhere without dirtying or hurting one's feet, but it was better to cover the soles of one's own feet with leather and to live an authentic life dedicated to Zen training rather than idealistically trying to change the whole world. Shibayama would later write that about 600 years ago, in Japan, a famous Zen Master Sanko was a teacher of the emperor of the time. A monk asked Master Sanko one day: "Please show me the essence of Zen." Sanko at once replied and said, "Look under your feet (shokokyakka)!"¹ Shibayama continues, "Look under your feet!" means "Where are you standing now?" This tells us that Zen does not exist apart from the very spot where we now stand. For Sanko, there was no place where Zen was not present. He actualized satori (sudden enlightenment) by way of occupied space.

 

Shibayama's life was interrupted by the war. He believed that defeat was inevitable, that only Zen and Japanese culture could survive, and that their study could restore his country. Following the death of his wife and child in 1945, he took vows of celibacy and became the Zen Master of Nanzen-ji. In a lecture in the early 1960s at the Society for International Cultural Relations (Kokusai Bunka Shinkokai) in Kyoto, he discussed the differences between Eastern and Western religion:

 

"I am told that the word 'religion' etymologically comes from a Latin word which means 'to bind together' and implies that religion consists in the relegation between God who is the Creator and hman beings who are the created...In Buddhism the word kiye is used as a term corresponding to 'faith' in the West. Kiye means 'to return to the fundamental truth and trust wholeheartedly in it.' This shows that the character of self-reliance forms the main current in Buddhism, and the ultimate goal or purpose of 'shukyo' (religion) is to reach 'gedatsu' (deliverance from worldly passions) or 'satori' (spiritual awakening) rather than 'salvation.'"

 

He died on August 29, 1974 shortly after the publication of Zen Comments on the Mumonkan." His final poem utilizes the same motif of filling the well with snow that Mukurai used in his death poem:
 

Carrying snow and filling the well,
I have lived for eighty-one years.
Truly there is nothing special--
I sleep with limbs outstretched.

 

¹Shibayama, Z. A Flower Does Not Talk--Zen Essays. Charles E. Tuttle Company, Inc. Rutland, Vermont & Tokyo, Japan (1970), pg. 98.

 

 

 

Edited April 5 by Iaido dude