id: 152852
accession number: 1985.89
share license status: CC0
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1985.89
updated: 2023-03-14 12:01:29.496000
Listening to the Wind in the Pines, 1400s. Ikkyū Sōjun (Japanese, 1394–1481). Hanging scroll; ink on paper; painting only: 76.8 x 32 cm (30 1/4 x 12 5/8 in.); including mounting: 153.7 x 38.1 cm (60 1/2 x 15 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 1985.89
title: Listening to the Wind in the Pines
title in original language:
series:
series in original language:
creation date: 1400s
creation date earliest: 1420
creation date latest: 1481
current location:
creditline: Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
copyright:
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culture: Japan, Muromachi period (1392–1573)
technique: hanging scroll; ink on paper
department: Japanese Art
collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
type: Painting
find spot:
catalogue raisonne:
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CREATORS
* Ikkyū Sōjun (Japanese, 1394–1481) - artist
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measurements: Painting only: 76.8 x 32 cm (30 1/4 x 12 5/8 in.); Including mounting: 153.7 x 38.1 cm (60 1/2 x 15 in.)
state of the work:
edition of the work:
support materials:
inscriptions:
inscription: 山居僧聴松風/何須臨済徳山禅一箇住山/三十年公案工夫了畢後/長松風静罷参眠 (transcribed by Trevor Menders with Zheng Xiaoying 2017, revised by Osvaldo Mercuri 2021)
translation:
remark:
inscription: 紫野龍寶門客东海純一休老和尚畫と詩一筆
translation:
remark:
inscription: 落款 一休
translation:
remark:
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
title: The Year in Review for 1985
opening date: 1986-02-12T05:00:00
The Year in Review for 1985. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 12-April 20, 1986).
title: Mountains, Rocks, and Water: Landscape Painting in Asia
opening date: 1987-10-02T04:00:00
Mountains, Rocks, and Water: Landscape Painting in Asia. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 2-December 13, 1987).
title: Japanese Gallery 235 Rotation
opening date: 2018-01-02T05:00:00
Japanese Gallery 235 Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (January 2-July 9, 2018).
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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
* Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 121). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (March 12-July 13, 2004).
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PROVENANCE
(Yabumoto Kōzō, Amagasaki, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
date: ?-1985
footnotes:
citations:
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
date: 1985-
footnotes:
citations:
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fun fact:
The word mountain, appearing in the title to the poem on this painting, can also refer to a temple.
digital description:
A monk sits in contemplation below an overhang covered with pine. The poem, titled "Monk in the Mountains Listening to the Wind in the Pines," refers to two Chinese Chan (Zen) Buddhist monks active in the ninth century. It may be translated as follows:
Why must the Zen of Rinzai (Linji Yixuan) and Tokusan (Deshan Xuanjian) reside in a single temple for thirty years?
Once he's solved his kōan, (the monk) ends his practice and falls asleep in the quietness of the wind among the tall pines. (translated by Osvaldo Mercuri)
According to an inscription following the poem, both painting and verse were done by an eminent Japanese Buddhist monk known for revitalizing the Kyoto temple Daitokuji.
wall description:
A monk sits in contemplation beneath a cliff, perhaps a visual reference to the time the Buddha Shakyamuni, or the historical Buddha, spent meditating in the wilderness. The lone figure is an apt subject for the work’s creator, the monk Ikkyū Sōjun. Though Ikkyū was abbot of the Zen temple Daitokuji later in life, he often lamented the level of corruption to which mainstream Buddhism had fallen during his lifetime, stemming from its close ties to the government at the time.
The poem on the painting refers to an important feature of Zen training, in which the meaning of phrases called kōan are contemplated as a means toward deeper spiritual insight. The poem reads:
Listening to the Wind in the Pines
For what purpose did Rinzai (Gigen) [Linji Yixuan] and Tokusan (Senkan) [Deshan Xuanjian] practice in the mountains?
For thirty years, after contemplating their kōans,
they fell quietly asleep to the wind in the tall pines.
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RELATED WORKS
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CITATIONS
Nakagawa Kazumasa 中川一政. Bokuseki Ikkyū Sōjun 墨蹟一休宗純. Tōkyō: Chūō Kōronsha, 1986.
page number:
url:
Grossman, Nancy, James T. Ulak, Marjorie Williams, and Laurence Channing. Art of Japan: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2005.
page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 56
url:
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IMAGES
web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1985.89/1985.89_web.jpg
print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1985.89/1985.89_print.jpg
full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1985.89/1985.89_full.tif