Image: Muqi, Six Persimmons (13th Century).
We bring our weekend art posts about food out of hibernation to flag a piece on display in the United States for a brief period of time at the end of 2023.
Six Persimmons along with a companion piece, Chestnuts, will be in San Francisco for a limited time, on loan from their home in Japan. The Times writes, “Painted with ink on paper in the 13th century, probably by a Chinese monk named Muqi, as part of a handscroll that also included “Chestnuts,” it was acquired in the 1500s by a Japanese merchant; cut out of the scroll and mounted on sumptuous green-and-white fabric inlaid with golden peonies; and donated to Daitokuji Ryokoin Temple, the Zen Buddhist institution in Kyoto that has been its guardian ever since, displaying it to the public only once a year for a single day.”
The works were not favored in China, “where ink paintings were valued for their order and precision, Muqi and his lumpy fruit went quickly out of style.” But in Japan the “asymmetry and ambiguity” had an appeal. The work got even more attention with the sixties-era attention in the States on Zen Buddhism. “An irregular lineup of five orbs, with a sixth in front, absent any background or context and rendered only in tones of gray, the piece approximately a foot square, exemplifies the kind of stark simplicity and attunement to nature that Americans found so bracing in Zen.” Will Heinrich’s piece in the Times includes an even longer analysis if you are interested.
Considering the Zen, sixties, California connections, it is not a surprise to find a Gary Snyder poem about the painting. From the New Yorker, 2008 (c):
Mu Ch’I’s Persimmons
There is no remedy for satisfying hunger other than a painted rice cake.
—Dōgen, November, 1242.
On a back wall down the hall
lit by a side glass door
is the scroll of Mu Ch’i’s great
sumi painting, “Persimmons”
The wind-weights hanging from the
axles hold it still.
The best in the world, I say,
of persimmons.
Perfect statement of emptiness
no other than form
the twig and the stalk still on,
the way they sell them in the
market even now.
The original’s in Kyoto at a
lovely Rinzai temple where they
show it once a year
this one’s a perfect copy from Benrido
I chose the mounting elements myself
with the advice of the mounter
I hang it every fall.
And now, to these overripe persimmons
from Mike and Barbara’s orchard.
Napkin in hand,
I bend over the sink
suck the sweet orange goop
that’s how I like it
gripping a little twig
those painted persimmons
sure cure hunger
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We hope you have a wonderful holiday season. Regardless where you are, may include good food and beauty and good people.
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Published: November 25, 2023