Tofukuji Temple: Sutra Announcement Board

JAPAN, Kyoto; Nanbokucho period

This scroll is largely considered the work of Zen monk and calligrapher, Kozan Ikkyo, although there is no physical indication of who the author was. The Sutra Announcement Board was hung in the main hall during the corrections ceremony held during the first month of the year at Tofukuji Temple. A horizontal scroll measuring 40 m in length originally, it was subsequently split in two and reframed. The text identifies the titles of the sutras to be recited during the corrections ceremony, the list of participating monastics, and supplementary information on practice and recitals. It was listed as an Important Cultural Property in 1973.
Kozan Ikkyo was a Japanese monk from Hizen (present day Saga) who belonged to the Rinzai school of Zen Buddhism. He was a successor of the Zen monk Kokan Shiren and based his calligraphic style on that of Huang Tingjian. The broad strokes and squarely framed characters in this work, however, appear to relate closer to Zhang Jizhi’s large character writings for signboard inscriptions.