"Profound Sincerity"

Jiun Sonja

An item at Metropolitan Museum of 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.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art