Artwork Page for The Bird's Nest Patriarch

Details / Information for The Bird's Nest Patriarch

The Bird's Nest Patriarch

鳥窠道林禅師像

early to mid-1600s

Tawaraya Sōtatsu 俵屋宗達

(Japanese, c. 1570–c. 1640)
Culture
Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
Medium
hanging scroll; ink on paper
Measurements
Image: 95.8 x 38.7 cm (37 11/16 x 15 1/4 in.); Overall: 187.3 x 50.8 cm (73 3/4 x 20 in.)
Credit Line
Norman O. Stone and Ella A. Stone Memorial Fund 1958.289
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print
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Did You Know?

This painting is based on the 1602 illustrated publication Marvelous Traces of Immortals and Buddhas (Chinese: Xianfo qizong).

Description

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 on layered pools of ink wash for effect.
A hanging scroll with gray ink washes depicts the monk Niaoge in a tree along the scroll's left edge. The rest of the composition is the pale sandy-brown color of the scroll. Depicted in light gray strokes, the round-bodied Niaoge sits, hands on his knees, looking down from the treetop. To the right of the tree trunk in the lower-left corner runs a column of Japanese text (see "Inscriptions").

The Bird's Nest Patriarch

early to mid-1600s

Tawaraya Sōtatsu

(Japanese, c. 1570–c. 1640)
Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)

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