Daruma, Daishin Gitō

Exhibition Label:
“The Sacred and the Secular: Buddhist Imagery in Religious and Popular Contexts,” Oct-2005, Hillary Pedersen
Zen, or Chan, Buddhism emphasizes meditation as the means to attaining enlightenment and the ability to achieve enlightenment in one’s current body instead of having to be reincarnated. There are no complex rituals as in Esoteric Buddhism, and no faith based proclamations as in Pure Land Buddhism.

The foremost symbol of Zen is its first patriarch, Bodhidharma (Japanese: Daruma), who traveled from India to China in the fifth century and is said to have meditated in front of a wall for nine years. Here Daruma is depicted facing the wall in side view.

Exhibition Label:
Asian Gallery, Spring 2003, Youmi Efurd
Daishin was the 274th abbot of the great Zen temple Daitoku-ji in Kyoto. He was a widely cultivated man who wrote a history of Japanese Buddhism and knew not only Zen but also the doctrines of other sects. He was a formidable literatus, excelling in poetry and calligraphy as well as producing a number of paintings in which forms are reduced to their essentials.

The foremost symbol of Zen is its first patriarch Daruma (Sanskrit: Bodhidharma), who traveled from India to China and is said to have meditated in front of a wall for nine years. Here Daruma is depicted facing the wall in side view. The strong ink outline of the figure gives us the sense of a monk enveloped by his robe. The feeling of visual compression conveys the intensity of Daruma’s meditation.

Archive Label:
The Zen monk Daishin depicts Daruma, who brought Zen from India to China, during his nine years of meditation. The brushwork of both painting and poem has a rough power that suggests the intensity of the subject:
Who is this Indian monk gazing at the wall? For nine years on Hsaio-hsi mountain his day is like night.