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'do no evil' and 'do good' |
context: calligraphy > Zen
Ikkyu Sojun, 1394-1481
Ikkyu is one of the key Zen monks in Japanese history, and this work makes a good place to start looking at Zen calligraphic aesthetics. There is not the same degree of concern with balance, precision, fluid beauty and so on that we see in earlier Heian hiragana work. Instead we see a confident, bold energy, something expressing power of spirit rather than being about making art. It's almost impossible to look at work like these without some consciousness of the gestures and speed of the man who wrote them.