Bean Vine

Itō Jakuchū, son of a greengrocer, used vegetables and plants as a personal iconography that almost always included a moral or religious meaning. This handsome sketch of a bean plant, paired with a poem by Ōbaku Zen monk Musen Jōzen (Tangai), refers to a story about the Chinese poet Cao Zhi (192–232), whose tyrannical brother, Cao Pei (Emperor Wen), once commanded him to compose a poem before he took seven steps, threatening him with execution if he failed. Tangai’s verse makes an erudite reference to Cao Zhi’s original poem comparing himself and his brother to the parts of a bean plant, while also alluding to the Zen philosophy of nonduality.

The green vine puts forth blossoms,
and its pods are like half-formed swords.
The bean and stalk are inseparable;
both were born from the same roots.
—Trans. John T. Carpenter