“Within Emptiness There Is a Path Beyond the Dust.”

Hisamatsu Shinichi

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Artist Name: Hisamatsu Shinichi
Title: “Within Emptiness There Is a Path Beyond the Dust.”
Dimensions: painting：120.1×25.8cm
full length：184.1×32.cm
Medium: Ink on paper
Description: This work is a single-line calligraphy (ichigyōsho) by Hisamatsu Shin’ichi. The phrase “Muchū ni michi ari, jinkai o izu” (“Within emptiness there is a path beyond the dust”) is quoted from Case 43 of the Blue Cliff Record (Hekiganroku), the kōan “Dongshan’s Avoidance of Heat and Cold.” It may be interpreted as expressing that from within emptiness, a way opens that transcends the dust of the mundane world.

Hisamatsu Shin’ichi (1889–1980) was a philosopher and scholar of Buddhism active in the Taishō and Shōwa periods. Born in Gifu Prefecture, his original surname was Ōno, and he used the art name Hōseki-an. A graduate of Kyoto Imperial University, he was influenced by the philosophy of Nishida Kitarō and the Zen studies of Suzuki Daisetsu (D. T. Suzuki), and devoted himself to the study of Eastern philosophy, Buddhist thought, and Japanese intellectual traditions.

In 1919 (Taishō 8), he became a professor at Rinzai University. From 1929 (Shōwa 4), he concurrently served as a professor at Ryūkoku University. In 1946 (Shōwa 21), he was appointed professor at Kyoto Imperial University, and later, in 1953 (Shōwa 28), he became a professor at the Kyoto City University of Arts.