Window and Stone Garden

Artist Yoshida, Toshi (Japanese, 1911–1995)

Date1963

Mediumwoodblock print, ink and color on paper

Dimensionsaiban

ClassificationsPrints

Markingsseal: Yoshida

Credit LineGift from the Judith and Paul A. Falcigno Collection

Terms

Object number2010.96

Label TextBuilt in 1509-13 by the monk Kogaku Soko (1464–1548) the Daisen-in is a sub-temple of the great Rinzai Zen temple Daitoku-ji. Yoshida Toshi here depicts the Chinese Zen-style bell-shaped window ("kato-mado") on a short wall at the heart of the garden of Daisen-in (“Great Hermit Temple”) in Kyoto. The establishment of the dry garden ("kare-sansui") around the abbot’s quarter at Daisen-in is attributed to Soami (d.1525), a monk and artist greatly inspired by Chinese Sung Dynasty culture, whose landscape paintings also embellish the temple. The temple garden features a white gravel river-landscape that represents a metaphorical journey through life. It first moves from the narrow rapids of youth to the mature stream of adulthood; finally it passes obstacles and tribulations (represented by rocks) into a flat void of gravel (with two cone-shaped hills of gravel and a Bodhi tree) that symbolizes the Ocean or the attainment of enlightenment.ProvenancePaul A. Falcigno and Judy Mansfield, Hamden, CT

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