Ensō hana ari tsuki ari, Fukushima Keidō

Teaching Gallery Label: "The Tea Ceremony," Apr-2014, Kris Imants Ercums Fukushima, who is familiar to residents of Lawrence from his frequent visits to the Spencer Museum throughout the years, was the head abbot of Tofuku-ji Temple in Kyoto, Japan, and leader of the Rinzai sect of Zen. The inscription reads: Within not-one-thing is the inexhaustible. There are flowers. There is the moon. There are pavilions. Exhibition Label: "Japan Re-imagined/Post-war Art," Mar-2008, Kris Ercums Fukushima, who is familiar to residents of Lawrence from his frequent visits to the Spencer Museum throughout the years, is the head abbot of the Tofuku-ji in Kyoto, Japan, and leader of the Rinzai sect of Zen. The inscription on this painting reads: Within not-one-thing is the inexhaustible. There are flowers. There is the moon. There are pavilions. Archive Label 2003: Freely brushed ensō (circle motifs) have appeared in the work of Chan and Zen masters since the Tang Dynasty in China (618-907 c.e.). Used to represent the totality and meaning of existence - from the philosophical to the mundane - enso have been variously described as referring to "everything", "nothing", "unity" and "perfection" as well as to specific physical objects such as the moon or even a rice cake. On a serious level, the identification of an ensō with something as mundane as a rice cake refers to the belief that the totality of existence can be comprehended in a single object. At the same time, such a seemingly insignificant allusion serves to keep the viewer from taking the matter too seriously. Inscriptions accompanying ensō often refer to a well-known Zen saying. The phrase on this scroll is the second line of a couplet that reads: Within not-one-thing is the inexhaustible There are flowers. There is a moon. There are pavilions. Fukushima Keido is chief abbot of Tōfukuji Temple in Kyoto. As head of the Tōfukuji branch of Zen Buddhism, he is responsible for Tōfukuji ’s 370 subtemples.