Bean Vine, mid-18th century Itō Jakuchū 伊藤 若冲 (1716–1800) Inscribed by Musen Jōzen 無染淨善, 1693–1764 Japan, Edo period (1615–1868) Hanging scroll, ink on paper 125.7 x 47.9 cm; 192.1 x 61.6 cm (mounted) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Lita Annenberg Hazen Charitable Trust Gift, in honor of Cynthia and Leon Polsky, 1985, 1985.97 The green vine puts forth blossoms, And its pods are like half-formed swords. The bean and stalk are inseparable; Both were born from the same roots. —trans. John T. Carpenter Jakuchū, a celebrated Japanese artist, lived a century after Ingen. He was born into a wealthy greengrocer’s family in Kyoto and later became a lay Ōbaku Buddhist monk. His art is often inscribed by his Zen monk friends, here a poem by the Ōbaku monk Musen Jōzen. The painting represents more than mere brush-play. It celebrates a humble vegetable that Ingen introduced to Japan and, in fact, is still known in Japanese as “Ingen-mame,” or “Yinyuan’s beans.”