Tenjin Crossing the Ocean to China (Tōtō Tenjin)

Sweeps of ink form a figure in Chinese robes and hat. The figure is a “word-painting” (moji-e); the man’s hat is the character for “heaven” (ten 天), and his robe that for “deity” (shin or jin 神). One of many versions of a composition associated with the courtier, Zen practitioner, and master calligrapher Konoe Nobutada, the work depicts the poet and scholar Sugawara no Michizane (845–903), who is revered as Tenjin, the Shinto deity of poetry and learning.

The Zen monk Enni Ben’en (1202–1280) wrote that Tenjin came to him in a dream and said that he wished to study Zen. Enni told him to go to his old teacher in China, whereupon Tenjin miraculously crossed the sea and studied with the master. The poem, from the kagura play Tenjin, makes reference to legends of Michizane’s troubled spirit and his longing while in exile for the plum blossoms near his home:

Ume araba
iyashiki shizu ga
fuseya ni mo
waga tachi yoran
akuma shirizoke

Even at this humble hut,
if the plum is in bloom
the evil spirits
that try to haunt me
will be kept at bay.

—Trans. John T. Carpenter