“When you come to the Naraya in Otsu, you also learn to pound a mortar.”¹

 

The “staff” in this painting is actually a karausu, a mortar used to pound rice. In Zen painting, it represents the Sixth Patriarch of Zen, the Chinese monk Eno (in Chinese, Huineng, 638–713), who pounded rice for a monastery. Otsu, near Kyoto, was a pilgrimage site for monks, and the Naraya was one of the city’s renowned brothels, adding a titillating, suggestive meaning to the phrase “pound a mortar.” Nevertheless, the meaning of this work is profound in the context of Zen, for enlightenment can be achieved suddenly and surprisingly, as a result of ordinary acts like rice pounding or even sex.

 

—Bradley Bailey