Sutasuta bozu

The title of this painting sutasuta bozu or gannin bozu refers to the monk-performers who went to worship at Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples on behalf of busy merchants and courtesans. There is a verse that goes, "Here they come, here they come again, always coming but never staying, sutasuta bozu who earned three hundred yen, and then took off all their clothes as a substitute for worship." In reality, these monk-performers would recite such verses while pouring water over their bodies with a bamboo bucket, performing a ritual purification known as mizugori or suigyo. For a very similar work in the collection of Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, see Yoko Woodson, Zen painting and calligraphy: 17th--20th centuries, exh. cat. (San Francisco: Asian Museum Art Museum, 2001), pl. 38.