Lot 63: Sengai Gibon (1750-1837) Bamboo and calligraphy Edo period (1615-1868), c. 1800

SENGAI GIBON (1750-1837)
Bamboo and calligraphy
Edo period (1615-1868), c. 1800
Hanging scroll, ink on paper; depicting stems
and leaves of bamboo, inscribed Kunshi kono
gotoku ni omou (This is how a gentleman
thinks), with seal Sengai
With wood tomobako 22 3/4 x 24 1/2in (58 x 62.4cm)

Provenance
John Stevens Collection
Gibon Sengai ranks along with Hakuin (see
lots 57-59) as the greatest of Zen artists.
Here he depicts his favorite plant, bamboo,
alongside a brief calligraphy that draws the
time-honored parallel between its strength and
flexibility and that of a true gentleman (kunshi,
in Chinese junzi). Bamboo is also the perfect
Zen plant: graceful, pliant yet unbreakable,
useful in many ways, and good to eat (as
bamboo shoots) as well. Newly restored
and remounted, this is one of Sengai’s best
renditions of the subject.