Takuan Sōhō
1632 (Kan’ei 9)
Tangible Cultural Property, designated by Sakata city
Important Cultural Property
Donated by the Homma family
Takuan Sōhō (1573–1646) was a Zen monk of the Rinzai school, as well as the 153rd head of Daitokuji Temple.
Takuan composed this poem in 1632, the year he was pardoned from being exiled for the Purple Robe Incident (a 1627 incident in which the shogunate directly overturned the Emperor’s decree where he granted permission for monks to wear purple robes). Through the three ‘saru’ invoked in the poem — the words mizaru, iwaizaru and kikazaru, meaning “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” — the poem expresses Takuan’s frank state of mind during his exile in Kaminoyama in Dewa Province.
This piece came to the Homma family via the Sakai family, who ruled over the former Shōnai Domain. The accompanying box is inscribed with the Sakai family’s storehouse number, “Ru-no-in 68th”.