The Bird's Nest Patriarch
early to mid-1600s
Medium
hanging scroll; ink on paper
Dimensions
187.3 × 50.8 cm · image: 95.8 × 38.7 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
Japanese Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Norman O. Stone and Ella A. Stone Memorial Fund
Accession Number
1958.289
Tags
About this artwork
Tawaraya Sōtatsu’s painting was inspired by a 1602 Chinese book that featured images of legendary Chinese Buddhist experts and Daoist sages. The monk portrayed here is Niaoge, which literally means “Bird’s Nest.” He was a Zen practitioner who favored the isolation of treetops, from which he offered advice to the perplexed. The posture of the single figure suggests a dialogue with someone below. Sōtatsu was a master of the “boneless” (mokkotsu), or un-outlined, style of ink painting that relies o...