Seven-character Quatrain, Written on a Fan

Taigu Ryōkan (1758-1831) was a Zen monk of the Sōtō sect during the late Edo period. He was a descendant of the Tachibanaya Yamamoto clan, the village headman in the Izumozaki domain of Echigo Province. His childhood name was Eizō, later changed to Fumitaka. He inherited the Dharma of Tainin Kokusen of Entsūji Temple in Tamashima, Bicchū Province. Ryōkan lived in seclusion at Gogōan Temple on Kugami Mountain (Bunsui City, Niigata Prefecture) or in a Sōan on the grounds of Otogo Shrine. He spent his time with local children and residents, composing Manyō-style waka poems and free-verse Chinese poems, and enjoying calligraphy in his spare time from performing takuhatsu (asking for alms). He was content with a life of poverty, loved nature and freedom, and his style is widely admired for its combination of artistic and popular appeal.

This poem describes a scene in which he is on his way to perform takuhatsu (asking for alms) and hears the sound of a fisherman’s flute on the banks of a large river in late spring, with willow blossoms falling. Compared to the vast number of his ink drawings, Ryōkan’s fan calligraphies are few. When writing on fan paintings, Ryōkan had a style where the upper part was large and the lower part was small, and no letters were written on the folding lines.

This material was published in “Ryōkanten Mokuroku” (Daiwa Department Store Nagaoka, 1975) supervised by Asada Sōtarō, “Ryōkan wo Kangaeru” edited by (Yokohama) Ryōkan-kai (Bunka Shobô Hakubunsha, 1979), “Ryōkan Bokuseki Taikan” Vol. 2: Chinese Poems (2) (Chūōkōron Bijutsu Shuppan, 1994), and other publications.