seems to contain some heavy object.
a€?Have you ever seen this, Your Reverence?a€?
a€?What on earth is it?a€?
a€?An ink stone.a€?
a€?That so? What sort of ink stone?a€?
a€?It was a favorite piece in Sanyoa€™s col ection.a€?3
a€?No, I havena€™t seen that one.a€?
a€?It has a spare lid done by Shunsui.a€?
a€?No, havena€™t seen it. Show me, show me.a€?
The old man tenderly undoes the bag, revealing a corner of the russet stone within.
a€?Thata€™s a lovely color. Tankei, would it be?a€?4
a€?Yes, and there are nine a€?shrike spots.a€™a€?
a€?Nine?a€? repeats the abbot incredulously, evidently deeply impressed.
a€?This is the Shunsui lid,a€ says Mr. Shioda, displaying a thin lid in a figured satin wrapping. A Chinese poem of seven characters is written on it in Shunsuia€™s cal igraphic hand.
a€?Ah, yes. He had a fine hand, a fine handa€”though, mind you, Kyohei wrote a better one.a€?5
a€?You think so, do you?a€?
a€?Ia€™d say Sanyo was the worst of them. That tendency to cleverness made him vulgar. Nothing interesting in him at al .a€?
The old gentleman chuckles. a€?I know youa€™re no fan of Sanyo, so I changed his scrol for a different one today.a€?
a€?That so?a€ The abbot turns to look over his shoulder. The alcove is a simple recess in the wal . On its polished board stands an old Chinese copperware vase, its surface elegantly tarnished, with a two-foot-high branch of magnolia blossom arranged in it. The scrol hanging behind it is a large work by Sorai,6 on a backing of subtly glowing figured silk. The cal igraphy is on paper rather than the more usual silk, but the scrol a€™s beauty lies not only in the indisputable skil of the writing itself but also in the delightful harmony between the backing and the paper, which has aged with the passage of time. The figured silk itself is not particularly wonderful, but it seems to me to achieve its fine quality through a combination of faded color and a softening of the effect of the gold thread, so that any original gaudiness has dimmed, al owing a certain austerity to assert itself.
The two little ivory scrol ends protrude starkly white against the tea-brown background of the earth wal , while before the scrol softly floats the pale magnolia blossoms, yet the overal effect of the alcove is so calm as to be almost gloomy.
a€?Sorai, is it?a€? says the abbot, his head stil turned to look.
a€?You mightna€™t care much for Sorai either, but I thought youa€™d prefer it to the SanyA?.a€?
a€?Yes, Soraia€™s certainly far better. Cal igraphers from this particular period always have a certain refinement, even if the writinga€™s poor.a€?
a€?Was it Sorai who said a€?Kotaku is a great Japanese cal igrapher, while Ia€™m just a poor imitator of the Chinesea€™?a€?7
a€?No idea. My own cal igraphy certainly wouldna€™t be worthy of such a boast,a€? says the abbot with a laugh.
a€?Speaking of which, Your Reverence, who did you learn from?a€?
a€?Me? We Zen priests dona€™t read textbooks or do copying practice and suchlike, you know.a€?
a€?Stil , someone must have taught you.a€?
a€?When I was young, I did study Kosena€™s cal igraphy for a while. Thata€™s al , though. But Ia€™l do a piece anytime someone asks me.a€? The abbot laughs again. a€?Now, could you let us have a look at that Tankei? a€?
At last the damask bag is removed. Al eyes go to the ink stone that emerges. Ita€™s roughly twice as thick as a normal stone, about two and a half inches. The five-inch width and eight-and-a-half-inch length are fairly standard. The lid is polished pine bark that stil retains its scaly texture, and on it in red lacquer are written two characters in an unknown hand.
a€?Now, this lid,a€ the old gentleman begins, a€?this lid is no ordinary lid. As you can observe, therea€™s no question that ita€™s pine bark.
Nevertheless . . .a€?
His eyes are on me as he speaks. As an artist, Ia€™m unable to summon much admiration for a pine bark lid, no matter what its provenance and story, so I say, a€?A pine lid is a little inelegant, surely?a€?
The old gentleman holds up his hands in horrified remonstrance. a€?Wel , if ita€™s merely a common pine lid, I do agree, but this onea€”this one was made with Sanyoa€™s own hands, from pine stripped from the tree in his very own garden while he was in Hiroshima.a€?
Wel then, I think to myself, Sanyo was a vulgar fel ow, it seems. Rather daringly, I remark, a€?If he made it himself, he could get away with making it look a bit clumsier, I think. It seems to me he needna€™t have gone to the trouble of polishing up the rough patches to make them shine like that.a€?
The abbot laughs heartily in instant agreement. a€?True enough,a€ he says. a€?Ita€™s a cheap-looking lid.a€ The young man turns his eyes pityingly to the old gentleman, who rather crossly takes the lid off and puts it aside. Now at last the ink stone itself is revealed.
