Sengai
Japanese artist (1750-1837)
Sengai Gibon (仙厓 義梵; 1750–1837) was a Japanese monk of the Rinzai school (one of three main schools of Zen Buddhism in Japan, the others being the Sōtō school and the much smaller Ōbaku school). He was known for his controversial teachings and writings, as well as for his lighthearted sumi-e paintings. After spending half of his life in Nagata near Yokohama, he secluded himself in Shōfuku-ji in Fukuoka, the first Zen temple in Japan, where he spent the rest of his life.
Though the Rinzai sect is particularly known for its hard-to-understand teachings, Sengai tried to make them accessible to the public.
Works
One of his most notable paintings depicts a circle, a square and a triangle. Sengai left the painting without a title or inscription, save for his signature. The painting is often called Marusankakushikaku, written as "○△□", or "The Universe" when referred to in English.
My play with brush and ink is not calligraphy nor painting; yet unknowing people mistakenly think: this is calligraphy, this is painting.
Gallery
See also
Buddhism in Japan
List of Rinzai Buddhists
Further reading
Suzuki, Daisetz T. (1971). Sengai.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Sengai” is japanese artist (1750-1837). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Sengai, Japanese and artist, not as a finished interpretation.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 5, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q1370392. VIAF identifies the subject as 14945455. The Library of Congress control number is n50011077. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1750, 1837 and 1971.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sengai” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.