慈雲尊者筆　「至誠心」|"Profound Sincerity"

Jiun Sonja

ca.1780–90 · Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper · Asian Art

Born and raised in Osaka, Jiun Sonja was a scholar with wide-ranging spiritual interests who was ordained as a Shingon Buddhist monk but later turned to the study of Zen and Shinto. A reformist concerned about the moral laxity of the Buddhist clergy of his day, he drew in his calligraphy upon the energetic, spontaneously brushed works of Zen monks of the past. In this hanging scroll, the words “profound sincerity” were taken from the Sutra of Meditation on Amida Buddha (Kanmuryōju-kyō), a Pure Land Buddhist text, but Jiun’s vigorous, brusquely inscribed characters clearly reflect the strength and austerity of traditional Zen monastic training.

Artist

Jiun Sonja

Date

ca.1780–90

Medium

Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper

Culture

Japan

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Gift of Joan B. Mirviss, in memory of T. Richard Fishbein, 2015