Portrait of Reishojo (Ling Zhao)

Ling Zhao (Reishojo, in Japanese), is a rare female follower of Zen Buddhism who lived in China during the early ninth century. A model of filial devotion, she supported her aging and ailing parents, by standing in the street, selling bamboo baskets made by her father. Her images were popular within Zen circles in Japan. The artist’s poetic name, Kogetsu Shurin, (lonesome-looking moon circling woods) suggests nothing more than a literary man’s longing. There are few know facts about this artist ’s life, other than that he came from Satsuma (modern Kagoshima Prefecture), on the southern tip of Kyushu, and that he admired and followed the art of the great ink-painting master Sesshu Toyo (1420-1506). For a similar work by the same artist formerly in the collection of Peter F. and Doris Drucker, see Masterpieces from the Sanso Collection: Japanese Paintings collected by Peter F. and Doris Drucker, exh. cat. (Chiba City Museum, 2015), pl. 56