Jiun Onkō’s gestural calligraphy exploits, to great effect, the flying-white technique, which involves using a brush with splayed bristles. The short, cryptic phrase transcribed here is the response given by the Chinese Chan monk Zhaozhou Congshen (Jōshū Jūshin, 778–897) to a koan—a riddle-like question posed by a master to trigger spiritual enlightenment in his disciples. When asked, “What is the meaning of the Patriarch [Bodhidharma] coming from the west?,”
趙州云「庭前栢樹子」
Zhaozhou replied: “The cypress trees in the front garden.” Jiun Onkō, a Shingon Esoteric Buddhist monk distinguished for his extensive engagement with religious traditions beyond his own sect, including Zen Buddhism, often drew upon this koan as a recurring motif in his poetry.
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慈雲飲光筆 公案「庭前栢樹子」
Title:Zen Koan on Cypress Trees
Artist:Jiun Onkō (Japanese, 1718–1804)
Period:Edo period (1615–1868)
Date:late 18th century
Culture:Japan
Medium:Hanging scroll; ink on paper
Dimensions:Image: 45 1/8 × 21 3/4 in. (114.6 × 55.2 cm) Overall with mounting: 78 3/8 × 22 5/8 in. (199.1 × 57.5 cm) Overall with knobs: 78 3/8 × 25 in. (199.1 × 63.5 cm)
Classification:Calligraphy
Credit Line:Mary and Cheney Cowles Collection, Gift of Mary and Cheney Cowles, 2023
Object Number:2023.583.20
Jiun Onkō is arguably one of the most radically experimental calligraphers of early modern times in Japan. He played with ink and tested its ability to achieve graphic abstraction. Understanding the visual power of flying white—the streaks caused by allowing the brush’s bristles to separate as ink runs dry—Jiun intentionally left uninked areas within his strokes to accentuate the appearance of rapid, abbreviated brushwork. He was influenced by the energetic, freely brushed Zen works of the medieval period, creating vigorous, brusquely inscribed characters that clearly reflect the power and austerity of traditional monastic training. Jiun’s calligraphies, which usually cite Zen Buddhist sayings, are celebrated for their forceful manifestation of spontaneous energy.
Born and raised in Osaka, Jiun Onkō was a scholar and prolific writer with eclectic spiritual interests. Ordained as a Shingon Buddhist monk, he immersed himself in Buddhist teachings of various sects as well as the Chinese classics and Confucianism. He was also known as one of the greatest Sanskrit scholars of his day. In fact, he created "Zen"-style Sanskrit calligraphy later in his life.[1] A reformist concerned about the moral laxity of the Buddhist clergy and frustrated by traditional Buddhist commentaries, he turned to meditation and became a full-time practitioner of Sōtō Zen Buddhism. From about age seventy, Jiun dedicated himself to the study of Shinto and authored books on the subject.
The poem in cat. 76 (2023.583.19) begins in the right column with the characters 一 ("one") and 心 ("mind") combined to form the phrase 一心 (isshin), which refers to the fundamental Buddhist concept of "one mind" but can also be read as hitotsu-gokoro ("having a single thought") in everyday usage. In the minimalist rendition of these first two characters, we sense the power of the simple but urgent message. Even the liberal spacing around the characters helps convey a metaphysical statement of nothingness. Immediately beneath that phrase, the two-character compound 不生—fushō, with a Japanese colloquial pronunciation of 生ぜざれば shōzezareba and a literal meaning of "unborn" or "not roused" from calmness—is similarly hyperabbreviated and brushed with increasingly dry but still dark strokes. the characters in the left column, by contrast, epitomize the flying-white treatment. Together the two columns form a dichotomy of dark and light, yin and yang—adding expressiveness to the composition:
一心不生 萬法無咎
Isshin ni shōzezareba banpō toga nashi
If the "one mind" is not roused, then ten thousand things give no offense.[2]
This passage distills fundamental Buddhist wisdom into a succinct observation: If a person remains contemplative and serene and avoids having "one mind" to perceive, then the "ten thousand dharmas"—or myriad worldly phenomena—will cause no anguish. The lines are from Inscription on Trust in the Mind (Xinxin ming) by the Chinese Buddhist patriarch Jianzhi Sengcan (Kanchi Sōsan; 529–613).
The calligraphy in cat. 77 (2023.583.20) is similarly brusque and exploits the flying-white technique to great effect. Here, Jiun transcribed a cryptic response given by the Chinese Chan monk Zhaozhou Congshen when asked, "What is the meaning of the patriarch [Bodhidharma] coming from the West?" (see cat. 27, 2019.420.5).
趙州云 庭前栢樹子
Zhaozhou said:
"the cypress trees in the front garden." [3]
[John T. Carpenter, with Tim T. Zhang, The Three Perfections (2025), cat. 77, p. 210–211, adapted 8/12/2025]
[1] The standard multivolume compendium of Jiun’s calligraphy is Hase 1922–26. More recent catalogues include: Miura 1987 (with an extensive list of exhibits in English); Tokyo National Museum 2004; Sugimoto 2018. In English, see Addiss 1989, pp. 152–58. For a representative example of his Sanskrit calligraphy, see Addiss 1989, p. 154, no. 84.
[2] Translation by John T. Carpenter adapted from various existing translations. the entire Inscription on Trust in the Mind has been rendered into English numerous times, including by the eminent translators Arthur Waley ("only when no thought arises are the Dharmas without blame"; Waley 1954, p. 296) and Suzuki Daisetsu ("When the one mind is not disturbed, the ten thousand things offer no offence"; Suzuki Daisetsu 1961, p. 198).
[3] Translation by John T. Carpenter based on countless previous versions. 柏樹子 (hakujushi) has been variously translated as "juniper," "cedar," "cypress," or "oak." the reading "oak" is no doubt the result of the glossing in Japanese as kashiwa (the modern Japanese word for “oak”). Harada Shōdo has commented on “the uselessness of the Chinese juniper for lumber or nearly any other purpose,” suggesting paradoxically, in Zen fashion, that the Bodhidharma’s coming to China had no use or significance. Translation from Kirchner 2004, p. 7.
Addiss 1989. Stephen Addiss. The Art of Zen: Paintings and Calligraphy by Japanese Monks, 1600–1925. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1989.
Hase 1922–26. Hase Hōshū, ed. Jiun Sonja zenshū (Complete works of Jiun sonja). 19 vols. Osaka: Kōkiji, 1922–26.
Kirchner 2004. Thomas Yūhō Kirchner, trans. and ed. Entangling Vines: Zen Koans of the Shūmon Kattōshū. Kyoto: tenryu-ji Institute for Philosophy and Religion, 2004.
Miura 1987. Miura Yasuhiro. Tokubetsuten: Jiun Sonja ihōten; Seitan nihyaku-shichijūnen kinen (Special exhibition of calligraphy and paintings by Jiun “Sonja”: On the 270th anniversary of his birth). Exh. cat., Tōkyō Bijutsu Kurabu. Tokyo: Tōkyō Bijutsu seinenkai, 1987.
Sugimoto 2018. Sugimoto Yoshihisa, ed. Jiun Sonja: Itsukushimi no sho (Jiun sonja: Calligraphy of compassion). Kurokawa Kobunka Kenkyūjo kenkyū zuroku shirīzu 4. Exh. cat., Osaka Prefectural Chikatsu Asuka Museum. Nishinomiya: Kurokawa Institute of Ancient Cultures, 2018.
Suzuki Daisetsu 1961. Suzuki Daisetsu. "Inscribed on the Believing Mind." In Essays in Zen Buddhism (First Series), pp. 196–201. New York: Grove Press, 1961.
Tokyo National Museum 2004. Tokyo National Museum, ed. Kōkiji shozō: Jiun no sho (Jiun’s calligraphy in the collection of Kōkiji Temple). Exh. cat. Tokyo: Tokyo National Museum, 2004.
Waley 1954. Arthur Waley, trans. "On trust in the Heart." In Buddhist Texts through the Ages, edited by edward Conze, in collaboration with Isaline Blew Horner, David L. Snellgrove, and Arthur Waley, pp. 295–98. New York: Philosophical Library, 1954.
Signature: Seals: (lower left, square intaglio seal) Hyakufuchi Dōshi 百不知童子 (Acolyte who does not know a hundred things); (square relief seal) Onkō 飲光.
Higashihara Family , by second half of the 20th century until unknown date; [ Kami Kensuke , Kyoto, until July 12, 2019; sold to Cowles]; Mary and Cheney Cowles , Seattle, 2019–23; donated to MMA
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Three Perfections: Japanese Poetry, Calligraphy, and Painting from the Mary and Cheney Cowles Collection," August 10, 2024–August 3, 2025.
Kinami Takuichi 木南卓一, ed. Jiun no sho 慈雲の書 (Jiun’s calligraphy) Kyoto: Kitakawa Hakushūdō, 1963, pp. 6, 34, no. 61.
John T. Carpenter, and Tim T. Zhang. The Three Perfections: Japanese Poetry, Calligraphy, and Painting; The Mary and Cheney Cowles Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2024, pp. 210–11, cat. no. 77.
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