National Treasures & Important Cultural Properties
of National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan

Shūhō Myōchō (1282–1337), also known by his imperially conferred title Daitō Kokushi, was a high priest of the Rinzai school of Zen Buddhism during the Kamakura to Nanboku-chō period (12th–14th century). He was the disciple of Nanpo Jōmin (1235–1308), and had garnered the patronage of Emperor Hanazono (1297–1348) and Emperor Godaigo (1288–1239). He was also the founder of Daitokuji Temple in Kyoto.

In this work, Myōchō pens the teachings of his master’s master, Kidō Chigu (1185–1269), copied from a collection of the latter’s sermons. Opening with cold wind blowing on a bleak autumn’s night and closing with the gentle spring breeze, this sermon’s central message is about how it is most difficult to experience the Buddha’s teachings as they are, without preconceptions. The first word, kogarashi 木枯し (a cold wind strong enough to blow leaves off the trees), has also earned it the nickname “Kogarashi bokuseki” (“bokuseki” refers to calligraphy written by Zen monks).

This scroll was passed down in a three-layer wooden box, which comes with writings tracing its provenance. Notable past owners during the medieval period include renga poet Sōchō, the Shinjū’an hall of Daitokuji, Oda Nobunaga (1534–82); in the Edo period, it was offered to the Unrin’in Temple in 1708 by Ueda Masasato and kept there for a period of time. After the Meiji Restoration, the work passed through the hands of politicians Inoue Kaoru (1835–1915) and Fujiwara Ginjirō (1869–1960).

Incidentally, Myōchō had once served as the abbot of Dazaifu’s Sōfukuji Temple for just a hundred days at the order of Emperor Godaigo, connecting him with Kyushu National Museum, which is also located in Dazaifu.