Kyougen gekichiku　香巌撃竹

KEY WORD :　art history / paintings

Ch: Xiangyan Jizhu. Also read Kougan gekichiku. A painting subject of the Tang dynasty Zen 禅 (Ch: Chan) priest Chikan's 智閑 (Ch: Zhixian) sudden enlightenment upon hearing the sound of bamboo being struck. Chikan, sometimes called Kyougen 香巌 (Ch: Xiangyan) after the name of the temple where he lived, was a disciple of the priest Izan い山 (Ch: Weishan) at the Kyougenji 香巌寺 (Ch: Xiangyansi) in Dengzhou �ｹ州, modern day Henan 河南. Izan, although recognizing Chikan's potential, was unable to help him achieve enlightenment. One day, according to the MUMONKAN 無門関 (Ch: Wumenguan, 1229), while visiting the ruined temple of the earlier patriarch Echuu 慧忠 (Ch: Huizhong) in Nanyang 南陽, Chikan took up a straw broom and began to clear away debris near a bamboo grove. Suddenly he heard the sound of something (his own broom by some accounts) striking a stalk of bamboo and instantly attained enlightenment. Kanou Motonobu 狩野元信 depicted the subject in one painting from his set of Zen patriarchs, Zenshuu soshizou 禅宗祖師像 at Daitokuji Daisen-in 大徳寺大仙院, now Tokyo National Museum.

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