Tea-grinding stone mill

INSCRIPTION:
On a stone mill,
an ant turns and turns
as if turning around is its way of life.
SEALS:
Hakuin, Haikuin no in
This painting shows a stone mill for grinding tea leaves. On top of the mill is an ant, which goes round and round as the mill turns. Hakuin, a great Zen monk painter of the Edo period, was satirically questioning why the ant did what he was doing.
As in many of his Zen paintings, Hakuin here depicted his subject in the most abbreviated manner; the entire painting—round tray, mill, and ant—was drawn with fewer than ten strokes, with which he nevertheless was able to produce sufficient variations in ink tone.