Daruma from behind with Calligraphy

17th century

Hanging scroll; ink on paper

Image: 50 1/4 × 13 1/8 in. (127.6 × 33.3 cm) Scroll: 76 1/2 × 20 × 1 1/4 in. (194.3 × 50.8 × 3.2 cm) Storage box: 21 1/4 × 2 5/8 × 2 1/2 in. (54 × 6.7 × 6.4 cm)

The Gitter-Yelen Collection, museum purchase funded by the Brown Foundation Accessions Endowment Fund

2021.256

ProvenanceResearch Ongoing
Exhibition History"None Whatsoever: Zen Paintings from the Gitter-Yelen Collection," Japan Society Gallery, New York, New York, March 8–June 16, 2024. (OL.1698)

Isshi Bunshu painted this subject several times, often using soft, gently curving lines to delineate Daruma’s robe. His portraits of the Zen patriarch are not as abbreviated or abstracted as later examples, with Daruma’s slight profile visible.

—Bradley Bailey