Meiji period (1868-1912) or Taisho (1912-1926), hanging scroll, ink on paper, a bold painting of the Zen training stick of nandina, a favorite subject of Nantenbo to depict, the thick expressive staff with delicate tie and tassels around it, inscription to both sides of stick, artist's signature together with two red artist seals to lower left, comes together with inscribed tomobako wooden storage box.

DOA 78 x 15 in., Image size

Nakahara Nantenbo He lost his mother at the age of seven and was sent to the Yukoji Monastery as a novice when he was eleven. There he received instruction in Chinese classics in addition to Zen texts. Between the ages of eighteen and thirty Nantenbo trained at various centers and ultimately obtained a certification of enlightenment. Nantenbo was installed as abbot of Daijoji temple in Yamaguchi Prefecture.
A few years later, in 1873, he cut from a nanten tree a staff and used it to discipline students. He became known as Nantenbo (Nanten staff) (bo means staff or stick). When a student approached Nantenbo, who was always armed with a stick and presented them with a koan (a Zen riddle), Nantenbo would give them his trademark warning: ‘Whether you speak or not, thirty blows from my staff!’
A disciplined Zen teacher and prolific Zen painter, Nantenbo learned to use painting and calligraphy as a means of expressing the Zen spirit that lies beyond words. He created most of his paintings and calligraphy when he was in his late seventies and early eighties. The most intriguing subject of all for Nantenbo is the nanten staff, as the painting on offer here.


Good estate condition; some scattered foxing and discoloration to paper.