Chuho Sou (Shogetsu) 1759–1838

Mount Fuji

Hanging scroll, ink on paper

Painting: 29 x 57 cm

Mounts: 118 x 65 cm 

Signature: Hasui

Seals: Chuho, Hasui no Kan

In the painting Shogetsu has rendered Mount Fuji with a single line of his brush. Few mountains have Mount Fuji’s simplicity of form and quiet, noble beauty. Venerated since ancient times as a sacred peak, it has been celebrated in poems and songs, and its graceful form portrayed by countless artists. 

From a Buddhist point of view, the looming presence of Mount Fuji shows “the True Face of Bodhidharma.” This aspect of the painting represents Buddha-nature (that is, self-nature). Expressed in conceptual terms, it symbolizes the absolute, the first principle, or tathata (suchness): it is the towering, immovable symbol of the Buddha Law.

Shogestu was 418th Daitoku-ji head-monk and is recognized as an eminent Zen master and calligrapher. Tea ceremony expert and skilled potter, he wrote a famous treatise on the tea ceremony known as “Shogetsu-an".