“This is the way. I always tread but I am completely lost just the same under the hazy moon.”¹

Lao-T’zu was a semi-apocryphal Chinese sage who wrote the Tao Te Ching, the founding text of Taoism, and is traditionally shown atop his ox, which he rode westward to write his seminal work. Sengai’s treatment of the master is charming and verges on the comical, its humor enhanced with a pun in the inscription. The “Tao” of Taoism literally means “the way,” suggesting that the wise Lao-T’zu, despite his knowledge of his spiritual path, might still, like a regular traveler, find himself lost beneath the moon’s light. The gently satirical treatment of venerated figures is a common characteristic of many Zen portraits.

—Bradley Bailey