Chinese Poem on Fishing and Zen

Osen Keisan 横川景山

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Brushed in flamboyant, yet fully controlled brushwork on gorgeous orange-red dyed paper, the eminent Zen monk-literatus Ōsen Keisan has inscribed a quatrain of a Chinese poem as his wont in a combination of standard, semi-cursive, and cursive scripts. It can be deciphered and tentatively translated as follows: 屋似蘆花浅水舟、釣無眞贋只天遊、 禪河敎海掣鯨手、春雨爲絲状月鈎、 My hut resembles a shallow-water skiff amid the reeds and flowers, 　 Where I pass my time fishing idly, just enjoying nature. From the river of Zen, into the ocean of Buddhist Law, I try to reel in a whale, Using fine spring rain as a fishing line with the hook of the crescent moon. Osen Keisan was a monk of the Rinzai Zen sect, and a prominent figure in the Gozan Bungaku literary salon culture of the five high-ranking Zen temples of Kyoto of the day. He was an aide and close confidant of the eighth Ashikaga shogun, Yoshimasa (1436–1490), and advised him on both foreign affairs and literature.

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