白隠慧鶴 Hakuin
Ekaku (1686-1769)
« back
Out
of emptiness of the gourd (i. e. the void)
comes the phantasmagoria of the universe (the troupe of acrobats)
This
picture by Hakuin was evidently based on two things:
an old Chinese legend about a dragon coming out of a gourd,
and the appearance in Japan of a troupe of Korean acrobats
Shoin Temple, Shizuoka-ken