Ink Drawing of Bodhidharma

Zuikō Chingyū (1743-1822) was a Zen monk of the Sōtō sect in the late Edo period. He lived at Myōonji Temple in Nagato, Kannon’in Temple and Tōkōji Temple in Higo, Zenkyūin Temple in Shinano, Ryūtaiji Temple in Mino, and Hokkeji Temple in Settsu, among others. In Bunka 4 (1817), he established Manshōji Temple in Nagoya at the request of Tokugawa Naritomo, the daimyō (Japanese military lord) of the Owari domain. In Bunsei 3 (1820), he retired to Keiunken in the same province. He was a Zen monk who excelled in calligraphy and painting, representing the latter half of the Edo period, and left behind many calligraphic works characterized by delicate and soft brush strokes. He also created illustrations for Dōgen’s biographies, such as “Teiho Kenzeikizue” and “Eihei Dōgen Zenji Gyōjōzue,” contributing to the popularization of Dōgen’s pictorial biographies.

This work is an ink drawing of Dharma with an inscription by Chingyū himself, created in Bunsei 1 (1818), when he was 77 years old.