Plum
Muan Xingtao 木菴性瑫 (Jp. Mokuan Shōtō, 1611-1684)
Japan, Edo period (1615-1868)
Hanging scroll, ink on paper
33.2 cm x 61 cm, 133.5 cm x 76.3 cm (mounted)
Collection of Harald Conrad
梅 不是一番寒徹骨、爭得梅花撲鼻香
Plum – If it were not for a turn of bone-piercing cold,
How could we have the plum’s tingling scent?
—Trans. following “Fung Ping Shan Museum University of Hong Kong: An Exhibition
of
Huangpo Chan / Ōbaku Zen Calligraphy and Painting, Hong Kong 1989, p. 19.”