[?] Subscribe To This Site

The zen saying kissako on a
modern Japanese scroll

The zen saying, go and have some tea, is
written in current script on a blue hanging
scroll and invites you to the universal cup of
the tea of enlightenment.

I brushed the zen saying, kissako, as a
calligraphic invitation to discover the
universal truth within ourselves. Having a
cup of tea, a moment of awareness, is like
the act of sitting down and experiencing
enlightenment.

As the late zen master Shunryu Suzuki said: "Enlightenment experience is to figure out, to understand, to realize this mind which is always with us and which we cannot see".

Go and have some tea!

Calligraphy mounted on deep blue silk with a
fine golden pattern. Natural wooden roller at the
bottom of the hanging scroll.

Semi-cursive script

Calligraphy size: 36.5" x 13"; 93 x 34 cm

Mounting size of the entire hanging scroll:
77.5" x 18.5"; 197 x 47 cm.

If you would like to buy this hanging scroll,
please contact the artist.

Zen calligraphy, zen saying kissako, Japanese calligraphy

This zen saying stems from zen master Joshu, a 9th century Chinese master.

Once two traveling monks visited Joshu. He asked both of them, "Have you ever been here before?" One monk said yes. Joshu said, "Go and have some tea". The other monk answered no. Joshu said, "Go and have some tea". Joshu's attendant monk wondered about his master's answer and asked him,"Why do you say, 'Go and have some tea', to a spiritual highly advanced monk and then say, 'Go and have some tea', to a monk who has still not seen the truth?" Joshu said, "Go and have some tea!".

This Japanese calligraphy has 3 kanji :

KITSU (drink), SA (tea), KO (go)

English rendering :

Go and have some tea!

For another calligraphy with a zen saying.

The zen saying kissako on a modern Japanese scroll

The zen saying kissako on a
modern Japanese scroll