Pure White Stones, circa 1672-88

Details

Dokku Shoshi (1624-1688)
Pure White Stones, circa 1672-88
Signed Kansho Dokku sho, sealed Sairai ichiryu, Dokku and Shoshi
Hanging scroll; ink on paper
49½ x 9 3/8in. (125.6 x 23.8cm.)

Literature

John M. Rosenfield with Fumiko E. Cranston, Extraordinary Persons: Works by Eccentric, Nonconformist Japanese Artists of the Early Modern Era (1580-1868) in the Collection of Kimiko and John Powers, Vol. 1 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Art Museums, 1999), pp. 224-25, no. 55.

Special notice

This lot is offered without reserve.

Lot Essay

Dokku Shoshi (Chinese: Duhou Xingshi) was a Buddhist monk of the Obaku sect and an assistant to Ingen Ryuki. The Kansho(in) in the signature was his retreat from 1672.

The poem, in Chinese, had been translated:
In the creek, pure white stones.
In the cold air, a few red leaves.
At the foot of the mountain path, no rain.
In the window, though, a person’s damp green robe.

Translation by Fumiko E. Cranston from Extraordinary Persons, Vol. 1 (1999), p. 224.

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