82
Artist
Shunsō Joshu
Daitō Kokushi
late 18th or early 19th century
Hanging scroll; ink on paper
Overall: 47 1/4 × 21 5/8 in. (120 × 55 cm)
Mount: 61 × 26 5/16 in. (155 × 66.8 cm)
Roller: 28 3/8 × 1 1/8 in. (72.1 × 2.9 cm)
EX.2023.NW.075
“Feasting on air and lodging on water, no one has recorded the twenty years he lived under the Fifth Avenue Bridge.”1
A pupil of Reigen and Suiō, Shunsō Joshu is of Hakuin’s direct lineage. The master’s influence can be seen in this portrait of the monk Daito (Shūhō Myōchō, 1283–1337), particularly in the monk’s wry expression. Daito, founder of the temple Daitokuji, lived beneath a bridge in Kyoto for two decades before an aide to the Emperor lured him out by offering him a melon, which the monk holds in this portrait. The phrase “no one has recorded” is a reference to a famous poem by the monk Ikkyū (1394–1481) that states that if “no one has recorded” then “everyone has forgotten.”
—Bradley Bailey