Ueda Gizan (上田義山): 510th Abbot of Daitoku-ji
Ueda Gizan (上田義山) was a Japanese Zen monk of the Rinzai school and calligrapher. His full Dharma name was Gizan Ryōchū (義山良忠); Ueda is the family name. He served as the 510th abbot of Daitoku-ji in Kyōto – the monastery that has been more closely linked to tea culture than any other since the 16th century. He was also abbot of the sub-temple Kōtō-in, which was endowed by Hosokawa Tadaoki. Mui-shitsu (無為室) and Kan'un-shitsu (閑雲室) are recorded as his studio names and sobriquets.
Life Dates and Position in the Line of Abbots
Gizan died in 1972 at the age of 81, which places his birth around 1891. The line of abbots of Daitoku-ji is counted without gaps, which allows for a reliable classification: Gizan, as the 510th abbot, was followed by Tachibana Daiki as the 511th abbot, and later by Fujii Kaidō as the 515th abbot. This numbering is the most reliable means of attribution in Zen calligraphy, because Bokuseki are often signed with an abbatial title rather than a personal name.
Bokuseki: Zen Calligraphy for the Tea Room
Gizan's works belong to the genre of Bokuseki (墨蹟) – ink traces, that is, calligraphies by Zen masters that are regarded not as fine writing but as the direct expression of the writer's state of mind. Such hanging scrolls are displayed in the tokonoma of the tea room and set the fundamental tone of the gathering there. Alongside pure script, one also finds Zenga, that is, Zen painting, often with Bodhidharma as the motif and an accompanying line of text.
Bokuseki in the Tea Room: Format, Legibility, Effect
A Zen calligraphy is not read like a book. It hangs in the tokonoma during a tea gathering and sets its fundamental tone, often with a single line — the Ichigyō-mono, which fits narrow and tall into the alcove. Anyone wishing to buy such a scroll first pays attention to the format, since a wide sheet overwhelms a small tea room. Next comes the mounting: with Bokuseki it is deliberately kept restrained, so that nothing distracts from the brushwork of the script. Their origin in temple use makes such scrolls among the most sought-after pieces for the tea room to this day.
