“What is this?”

 

The scale of this large painting indicates it was likely made for a temple. Its subject matter is typically associated with the New Year, specifically the hatsuyume or the “first dream” of the New Year, which is believed to foretell one’s fortunes for the next 365 days. To dream of Mount Fuji, eggplants, and hawks was thought to be especially auspicious: Fuji represents a sacred location, while hawks were associated with the pursuits of warlords, and eggplant, or nasu in Japanese, is a homophone for the verb meaning “to become” or “to achieve.” As such, their combination in a New Year’s dream was thought to indicate great achievement or indeed ascent in the year to come.

 

Hakuin’s graphic and abbreviated treatment of this tradition is notable. He effectively describes the peak of Mount Fuji with a single, confident brushstroke, whereas the presence of a hawk is denoted by two seemingly outsized feathers. The three eggplants, two purple and one white, complete the traditional mnemonic for the dream, which conveys the proper sequence of the dream (1. Fuji, 2. hawk, 3. eggplant [ichi-fuji, ni-taka, san-nasu]) but may also be a reference to the famed Song Dynasty painting Six Persimmons, made in the thirteenth century by the Chinese monk Mu Qi (in Chinese, Muqi Fachang, c. 1210–c. 1269) and housed in Daitokuji in Kyoto.

 

—Bradley Bailey