SO TO ZEN - Shasta Abbey

40 Sōtō ZenIndia ink painting has its origin here. The number of Zen artistsis very great, but among them perhaps the best known is Sessh‰(1420 Ð1506), who deeply realized the significance of the sayingÒZen and art are oneÓ (J. Zen-ga ichimi). He studied underNyosetsu of the Sh‡koku Temple and the disciple of Nyosetsu,Sh‰bun. Later he went to China where he was influenced byHsia-kuei (J. Kakei). It is no exaggeration to say that his worksurpasses that of his teachers. We find the simple, profound,pure spirit of meditation at its highest artistic expression inSessh‰Õs powerful, emotional, harmonious haboku landscaperepresentations of nature. His head and shoulder portraits ofZen masters are also highly respected in the Zen School andshow remarkable progress over other artists of his period.Calligraphy is essentially beauty of line and is nowattracting a broad interest. Many of the famous calligrapherssuch as Sesson, Mokuan and Ry‡kan were Zen monks. Theirtalent and personalities are closely entwined. Calligraphy isattracting an ever-increasing interest among the people today.The placing of flowers in the tea room gave a greatimpulse to the development of flower arrangement as an art.The tea room respects sabi (a kind of elegant simplicity) whichis free from limitations. This respect for the unlimited isresponsible for the development of landscape gardening, theessence of which is the employment of a seemingly distantlandscape and the concealment of all traces of artificiality. The