“In the autumn, in their round hats, they return from the villages with the alms-baskets. All the wandering monks throughout the world—their begging bowls resound like thunder.”¹

Nantenbō painted several versions of this subject, a line of monks heading out to cadge for alms or beg for food. This procession is representative of the monks’ collective ability to transform their village and even the entire world through their acts of devotion and the spread of the dharma. Nantenbō’s treatment of the monks, individually indistinguishable and merging into a line of round hats and dark robes, conveys the concept of Zen lineage and the transmission of teachings between generations of teachers and students—something important to Nantenbō, who shared Hakuin’s lineage and his passion for reforming Rinzai Zen.

—Bradley Bailey