Object

Single Character of Bamboo by Kosetsu Soryu

Keio Object Hub
Person
Date
制作年 AD17
Title
コウセツソウリュウヒツタケイチジ
Collections
Depository
Institute of Oriental Classics (Shido Bunko) Campus Mita
Ref. number
AW-CEN-002461-0000
License
CC BY Images license
Creditline

慶應義塾(センチュリー赤尾コレクション)

URL
Classification
Art
AI Tagging
Wood Twig Art Water Font

Kosetsu Soryu (1599-1666) was a Rinzai Zen monk of the early Edo Period. Born in Izumi (Osaka Prefecture), he first joined the Kyokuren-Sha, a temple dedicated to Amitabha (Jp. Amida), where he took a tonsure. Then he went to study under Takuan Soho (1573-1645) and later became an heir to Kogetsu Sogan (1574-1643). He was promoted to head the Daitokuji Temple in 1644 at 50 years of age (181st bishop). He served at the Tokaiji Temple in Shinagawa (Tokyo), which had been founded by Takuan Soho, taking turns to handle temple affairs, and was instrumental in building Buddhist halls and residences attached to various temples across the nation. He died at 72 years and was posthumously given the honorable name of Daiko-Chikai-Zenji by Emperor Gosai (1637-85).Kosetsu Soryu calligraphed the single character denoting ‘bamboo’ with an interesting trick: the last stroke of this character is elongated into a drawing of an extended stem of a bamboo, even decorated with a few bamboo leaves around the middle. The leaves are not a simple decoration; they refer to the bottom portion of a famous couplet poem which depicts that ‘the color of a pine tree is changeless, but the bamboo has vertical joints’, insinuating that equality and discrimination coexist – another of the Buddhist laws. Soryu’s work is a rare, witty piece and yet conveys a deep significance.

Bamboo

Rights

Ref. number
AW-CEN-002461-0000
License
CC BY
Creditline

慶應義塾(センチュリー赤尾コレクション)

Images
license

Depository and ID

Depository
Institute of Oriental Classics (Shido Bunko)
Campus Mita
URL
Classification
Art

Components

OPEN DATADESIGN

Details

Identifiers

Title (EN)
Single Character of Bamboo by Kosetsu Soryu

Physical description

Weights and quantities
Quantity 1幅

Identifiers

Title (EN)
Single Character of Bamboo by Kosetsu Soryu

Physical description

Weights and quantities
Quantity 1幅