Serendipity

Photo by Se. Tsuchiya on Unsplash

I am purchasing a scroll, and I’m very excited about it. It is a scroll of the Japanese master Tesshu, and I’m attracted to it because of the skull he painted at the bottom. I first saw an actual Tesshu scroll at one of the showings the late John Stevens and I would present at our exhibition of ‘Budo Zen Art’ at Musubi Dojo/Aiko Institute during his annual visits in the 1990s - nearly 30 years ago.

Tesshu was famous as a swordsman and John had written a book about him called, Sword of No Sword. But Tesshu was also famous for his calligraphy partly because he was just so prolific, brushing 1,000s of calligraphies before his early death; mostly for fund raisers for Zen temples and such.

Zen priests are famous for brushing a one liner “patience is the greatest virtue,” “emptiness,” and other Zen proverbs along with a drawing: an enso (circle,) Bodhidharma, Mt Fuji, and in Tesshu’s case a skull. John would find many at flea markets in Japan. He would say that they are surfacing as the grandchildren divest a property of what they consider “junk” so that amazing scrolls prized by previous generations were becoming available in odd places. John would fix many of these scrolls up, and some he would leave as is. They might have the leavings of an insect, show a bit of a fire burn, but however imperfect John would tell us the scrolls are like us showing injury and damage collected through a lifetime, but still alive which he thought was really amazing. This was just one of the ways John brought these scrolls to life. Often he would tell stories of the artist, even the scroll maker.

I was really drawn to this Tesshu scroll. As I recalled his one liner was, “Once she was a beauty, but no more,” with a skull painted at the bottom. Tesshu’s skull was not frightening in the way that skull painters often depict skulls; it would just be brushed as if it were laying on the ground among the flowers and rocks, as just another part of nature, as nothing more than another carbon artifact, something used and left behind. And I thought this was very enlightening of Tesshu to show how something like beauty can be so fleeting, so impermanent - a part of Zen philosophy, a part of Buddhist philosophy, a part of all religions that claim the material world is an illusion. And so I admired this particular scroll of Tesshu’s that John brought to show, but at that time I wasn’t moved enough to purchase it. I did purchase many scrolls from John in those days and hung them around the dojo and yoga room. But my attraction to Tesshu’s Skull scroll was more personal and so any thought of purchase was put on hold.

Goblins, brooms, skulls, black cats, the kind of images we associate with Halloween was what I would teach for many years in my Zen Brush workshop for the month of October. I would find a Japanese rendition, they have many goblins quite distinct from ours, I would brush a bamboo broom like those they use in the mountains to sweep leaves from a mountain shrine, and so this was my spin on familiar Halloween motifs just to make the workshop interesting and fun.

When it came to skulls I looked back to my memory of Tesshu and his skull scroll. For fun I would brush a skull underneath the one liner I thought was his: “She was once a beauty, but no more.” At the time I thought I was copying Tesshu - not in the sense that I was looking at a Tesshu painting and brushing stroke by stroke - but picking up on the design of a one liner with a skull at the bottom; I was just fooling around from what I could remember of his scrolls and using his one liner.

But at some point when I began to decorate Japanese fans with this composition and produced paintings for selling, I confessed to John that I was using Tesshu’s saying: “Once she was a beauty, but no more.” I thought I’d better get it right if I wanted to use it. I was attributing the one liner to Tesshu on my artwork, but it was time to check it with John. My attribution was admirable, but not if I was getting it wrong! John was all about old scrolls and knew the story of each of them. He would authenticate the scrolls for buyers, he had become quite an authority in Japan; his 30+ year tenure at Tohoku Fukushi University had enabled him to create this kind of side line to his teaching job. At this point I thought I’d best verify with John that I was getting Tesshu’s one liner right. And so I wrote to him about this. But to my dismay John replied that Tesshu never brushed that line! John said, “It’s all yours!”

I’m still rather surprised that Tesshu didn’t brush this line, I thought he was so brilliant because of it. And I can’t quite fathom how I came by it.

Well I no longer offer Zen Brush workshops anymore; another Covid mortality. But the season for such images is rolling around again in the guise of Claremont’s Annual Harvest Festival: Village Venture. This annual harvest festival of businesses is offered each year by the City of Claremont and it takes place in the downtown we call “the village.” It has become very popular in the Southland and attracts visitors from the greater Los Angeles area. The streets are closed off for a day - the Saturday before Halloween - there is a parade for costumed children early in the morning to start things off, food trucks are stationed at a particular “foodtruck” site, all the village streets are lined with pop ups selling one thing or another, and thousands of people fill the streets finding things to purchase from vendors of all kinds. For many years as a NPO, I invested in a pop-up too. But there has been a hiatus of years in my participation in Village Venture. But now, as the VP of an art association, we are arranging to have 2 pop ups in front of our gallery from which to sell artists artworks.

The story of my purchase of Tesshu’s Skull scroll began when I decided I wanted provide some brush art pieces to raise funds at this festival, funds for a certain project at the gallery I particularly like. Whether I produce several and they get raffled off, or I station myself with an example of a scroll and brush many pieces that visitors could purchase I’m not sure, but I want to do something to raise money for this project.

Since it’s a harvest festival I’ve decided to brush my skull composition: A skull laying on the ground with some long grass growing through an empty eye socket with the one liner, “She once was a beauty, but no more.” Apparently, it is my own composition now just inspired by Tesshu. I wonder where that one liner came from, I was sure I remembered it as being Tesshu’s. But somehow it’s mine and that’s fine with me.

Then since it has been quite some time since I’ve brushed skulls, I summoned some Tesshu scrolls on the internet to inspire and remind me. Suddenly, this scroll - or one very much like it - the scroll I remembered from the exhibition appeared on my computer screen from a Japanese website. It was a price I could easily afford! However I had through the mysterious workings of web ended up on the website of this reputable Japanese Calligraphy house that sells old scrolls I can’t say. But clearly this Japanese business offered many Zen scrolls, like John and I once did at Musubi Dojo/Aiko Institue. I was being presented with a second chance to have one of Tesshu’s Skull scrolls! Heavens!

I wrote to them of my interest before I went to sleep. They are in Japan so the time difference is considerable. I was concerned that it would sell before my communication was received in any official way. And, peeking in the middle of the night my fears were realized, across the image of Tesshu’s skull scroll was the stamp “SOLD”. I was too late! I was saddened but not crushed, I had seen the scroll first hand years ago and it had left an impression on me. Maybe that was enough.

I had thought it would be cool to be able to see the scroll again, kind of a tribute or in memory to John’s recent departure. Also, Tesshu as a kind of ethereal mentor perhaps as I had studied sword for many years and had often talked about how the sword and the brush were one. But, I fell back asleep with the firm belief it was not to be.

This morning I noticed an email from the Calligraphy House: it asked for my patience as they prepare and send my invoice for the Tesshu SKULL scroll! The SOLD sign was in response to my offer!!!

Such a sweetness has developed for this fund raising project which is in the spirit of Tesshu as he did many brushworks for fund raising for good works. And I will be guided by an actual Tesshu scroll too! I think my one liner developed from my many talks with my Buddhist friends about the fleeting nature of reality; after all two Zen buddhist priests were my brush teachers, and my good travel buddy was a Tibetan Buddhist as was the Rinpoche that visited every year. I suppose the countless books I’ve read have managed to leave a mark … and a one liner!

The Gods are smiling and so am I.