Sengai: The Zen of Ink and Paper

by D.T. Suzuki

Book Overview

Gibbon Sengai (1750-1837) was known for his humor and unorthodox teaching style. A Zen master of the Rinzai school, he was also one of the most illustrious artists Japan has ever produced, known... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1570624895
• ISBN13: 9781570624896
• Release Date: November 1999
• Publisher: Shambhala
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.04 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 7.8" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Divine Humor Guided His Hands

This is an informal and accessible guide to Master Sengai's work, a man who in his study of Zen stumbled rather appropriately into the ink drawing art of sumi-e as a means of revealing for himself and others the essence of wisdom. It has been said that the secret of the Tao is so simple that if it were to suddenly become common knowledge, laughter would be heard everywhere. Looking at Sengai's art is to experience that truth and I recommend this as an antidote to the stifling austerity to which religious traditions are so often view as being caught up.

Classic early Zen work in America, with arresting graphics.

This is the last text written by the Japanese born scholar/meditator D.T. Suzuki, arguably the most instrumental person in introducing Zen to the U.S., prior to the great meditation masters Shenryu Suzuki and Joshu Sazaki. The book is much less intellectual than other of D.T. Suzuki's works, focusing more on issues of meditation practice through the paintings of Sengai, an eighteenth century zen painter/poet who was ahead of his thime in abstraction even by 19th and 20th century European standards.