Museum Collection Exhibition
Introduction to Traditional Art
Sutra Copies and Calligraphy by Zen Priests- Saturday, May 31 – Sunday, July 6, 2025
| Closed | Closed on Mondays |
|---|---|
| Hours | 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.（last entry: 4:30 p.m.） |
| General admission (On-line timed-entry tickets) | Adult 1300 yen, Student 1000 yen |
| Gallery | 1 |
The main subjects of this exhibition are sutra copies and calligraphy by Zen priest. The content of these works is anything but simple. Both are based on shared faith in Buddhism, but the contrast between sutra copies, carefully reproduced in orderly script, and Zen calligraphy, with bold brushwork expressing the writer's individuality, is fascinating. Looking at each example carefully is likely to reveal points to which one can feel a strong attachment.
In this exhibition, sutra copies and Zen calligraphy are displayed in the same gallery, divided into two sections. Please begin by experiencing their stylistic differences. The core works you will be viewing are sutra copies and calligraphy by Zen priests from our collection that are National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties. What makes them so exceptional? Here we introduce their highlights as calligraphy, their historical importance, and other points for appreciation, with simple explanations of specialized terminology. Let’s start enjoying these sutra copies and calligraphy by Zen priests, superb works all.
- Kanfugen-kyō
- Handscroll; ink on decorated paper
- Japan Heian period, 11th century
Nezu Museum - This handsomely decorated sutra has been copied on various colors of dyed paper joined together, with fine pieces of gold leaf scattered on it. Both volumes of this scroll were copied by the same person, in a graceful, characteristically Japanese calligraphic style. This masterpiece, with its beautiful harmony between the calligraphy and the paper on which it has been written, dates from the late Heian period (794-1185) .
- Kegon-kyō, Known as the Nigatsudō-yake-gyō,Vol. 46
- Handscroll; silver ink on indigo-dyed paper
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Japan Nara period, 8th century
Nezu Museum - The Nigatsudō-yake-gyō (Nigatsudō Scorched Sutra), a copy of the sixty-volume Kegon-kyō, is the only extant sutra copy in silver characters on indigo paper from the Nara period (710-794). This volume is extraordinarily revered, for, despite having suffered a fire, it is complete from end to end.
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Encouraging Words
By Yishan Yining - Hanging scroll; ink on paper
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Japan Kamakura period, dated 1316
Nezu Museum - Yishan Yining, a Chinese priest, was chief priest of Nanzenji Temple in Kyoto when he wrote this work of calligraphy for Kozan Ikkyō, a Japanese priest. In it Yishan encourages Kozan to study hard and further his training. The calligraphy, executed fluently in the cursive sōsho script, is a visual delight.
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Detached Segment of Religious Verse
By Wuxue Zuyuan - Hanging scroll; ink on paper
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Japan Kamakura period, dated 1280
Nezu Museum - Wuxue Zuyuan, a Chinese priest, composed this religious verse attesting that he had bestowed a sacerdotal robe on the Japanese priest Ichiō Ingō as certification of his having properly received the teachings. This work, a superb example of Wuxue’s Zen calligraphy, carries on the calligraphic style of China’s Song period (960-1279).