A Chinese Master's Farewell to a Japanese Monk
On the second day of the ninth month of 1325, in a monastery on the southern bank of the Yangtze near present-day Nanjing, an elderly Chinese Chan master picked up his brush to write a parting gift for a Japanese student. The student, a monk named Betsugen Enshi, had crossed the sea years earlier and spent three years in the master's community. Now he was leaving. What the master wrote was a gāthā, a verse in the Buddhist tradition, but its words carried far more than the usual courtesy of a send-off. Seven centuries later that single sheet of paper hangs in a museum in Tokyo, designated a National Treasure of Japan.
The work is known by its full designation as Calligraphy by Gulin Qingmao: Farewell Verse for Betsugen Enshi, Second Day of the Ninth Month, Taiding 2. It is a hanging scroll, ink on paper, measuring 37.7 centimeters high and 99.2 centimeters wide. Today it belongs to the Gotoh Museum in the Kaminoge district of Setagaya, Tokyo.
The Master and the Student
Gulin Qingmao (1262–1329), read in Japanese as Kurin Seimu, came from Wenzhou in Zhejiang province. He entered monastic life as a boy and became the dharma heir of Hengchuan Rugong in the Linji line of Chan Buddhism. By his sixties he was among the most respected teachers of the mid-Yuan period, ranked alongside Zhongfeng Mingben, and he presided over Baoning-ji, a major temple at Jinling. Among his disciples were Liaoan Qingyu and Zhuxian Fanxian, and a steady stream of Japanese monks who had sailed to the continent to study. So many crossed his threshold that contemporaries said no pilgrim from Japan failed to seek him out. His students were sometimes called the assembly "below Kongōtō," after one of his own sobriquets.
Betsugen Enshi (1294–1364) was born in Echizen, the old province along the Japan Sea coast in what is now Fukui Prefecture. He trained for twelve years at Engaku-ji in Kamakura before sailing for Yuan China in 1320. He would remain abroad for roughly eleven years, studying under Gulin for three of them. The fourteenth century was the high season of these exchanges: Japanese monks went to China to receive Chan teaching at its source, and Chinese masters occasionally made the reverse voyage. Betsugen belonged to that current of seekers, and the verse he carried home became one of its most cherished surviving documents.
Why a Send-Off Became a National Treasure
A farewell verse might seem a slight thing to rank among a nation's greatest art. The value of this one lies in what it actually says. Tradition records that Gulin praised Enshi as a seeker of iron-and-stone resolve who had come from distant Japan, endured three years of severe training, and bore the discipline of the teaching hall without flinching. Though the master judged that his student had not yet reached full awakening, he wrote that Enshi would one day break through and prove himself a worthy heir of the line. In the language of Chan, that is no small compliment. A verse offered at parting that affirms a student's standing in this way carries a weight close to that of an inka, the formal certificate by which a master acknowledges a disciple's enlightenment and right to teach.
The piece is also a rare physical link between two Buddhist worlds at the moment they were most closely joined. The brush, the paper, and the words all passed directly from a leading Yuan-dynasty teacher into the hands of a Japanese monk who would go on to found his own temple. Calligraphy of this kind, written by a revered Chan or Zen abbot, is called bokuseki in Japan, literally "ink traces," and such works were prized as art and as a tangible touch of the master himself. Japan recognized the scroll as a National Treasure on 22 November 1952.
Reading the Brushwork
Gulin was admired in his own day as a fine calligrapher, and this scroll shows why. The text is written in running script, the fluid style that sits between the formality of standard characters and the swiftness of cursive. The Gotoh Museum notes that Gulin had absorbed the manner of Zhao Mengfu (1254–1322), the towering calligrapher and painter of the early Yuan court whose elegant, balanced hand reshaped Chinese taste for centuries. You can sense that lineage in the controlled grace of the strokes, the even spacing, and the unhurried confidence of the line.
What rewards a slow look is the tension in the writing between discipline and feeling. This was a personal letter as much as a formal document, written by a man in his sixty-fourth year to a student he was unlikely to see again. The characters keep their dignity, yet the rhythm of the brush carries the warmth of the occasion. Standing before it, even a visitor who cannot read classical Chinese can follow the movement of the hand down the column and feel the pace at which it was written.
From a Temple Altar to a Warlord's Collection
The scroll's later history reads like a map of Japanese power. After Betsugen returned home he founded Kōshō-ji in Echizen, and the verse was kept there. From the temple it passed to the Asakura, the warrior house that ruled Echizen, and from the Asakura it entered the collection of Oda Nobunaga (1534–1582), the unifier whose campaigns reshaped sixteenth-century Japan. Nobunaga is said to have prized it. After him it went to one of his leading generals, Niwa Nagahide (1535–1585). A piece of devotional calligraphy made for a quiet monk had become a treasure handled by the most powerful men of the age, a reminder of how deeply Chan calligraphy was valued in the world of the tea room and the warrior elite.
Betsugen himself rose high in his later years. He won the patronage of the shogun Ashikaga Yoshiakira and became the forty-fourth abbot of Kennin-ji in Kyoto, one of the foremost Zen temples in the country. A skilled poet of Buddhist verse, he left collections of his own writing. The student who once endured Gulin's teaching hall ended his life as one of the leading Zen figures of his generation.
Visiting the Gotoh Museum
The Gotoh Museum opened in 1960 to house the collection of Gotō Keita (1882–1959), the industrialist who built the Tokyu railway group. It sits in a quiet residential pocket of Setagaya, a short walk from Kaminoge Station on the Tokyu Ōimachi Line. The holdings run to some five thousand objects of Japanese and East Asian art, including five National Treasures, among them the famous twelfth-century illustrated handscroll of the Tale of Genji.
One practical point matters for anyone hoping to see this particular scroll: the museum has no permanent display. Exhibitions are organized by theme and rotate through the year, so the Gulin verse is shown only on certain occasions. Check the current exhibition schedule before you travel. Even when the scroll is not on view, the visit repays the trip. The museum stands in a generous garden that descends a wooded slope, dotted with stone Buddhist figures, a pond, and historic teahouses registered as cultural properties. The Todoroki Ravine, a green river gorge cutting through the city, lies about ten minutes away on foot and makes an easy pairing for an afternoon in this corner of Tokyo.
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Q&A
- Can I see this scroll whenever I visit the Gotoh Museum?
- No. The museum has no permanent exhibition and rotates its displays by theme through the year, so the scroll appears only during certain shows. Confirm the current exhibition schedule on the museum's website before planning your visit.
- What is a bokuseki, and why does it matter?
- A bokuseki, or "ink trace," is calligraphy brushed by a revered Chan or Zen master. Such works were valued as a direct, physical connection to the teacher and became central to the aesthetics of the Japanese tea ceremony.
- Why is a farewell verse considered so significant?
- Its content affirms Betsugen Enshi's standing as a disciple after three years of training, giving it a weight close to that of an inka, the certificate that recognizes a student's enlightenment and right to teach.
- How did Oda Nobunaga come to own it?
- The scroll was kept at Kōshō-ji, the temple Betsugen founded, then passed to the Asakura clan of Echizen and from them into Nobunaga's collection. It later went to his general Niwa Nagahide.
- What else is worth seeing at the museum?
- The Gotoh Museum holds five National Treasures, including the celebrated illustrated handscroll of the Tale of Genji, and sits in a large hillside garden with historic teahouses. The nearby Todoroki Ravine is about ten minutes away on foot.
Basic Information
| Designated name | Calligraphy by Gulin Qingmao: Farewell Verse for Betsugen Enshi, Second Day of the Ninth Month, Taiding 2 |
|---|---|
| Designation | National Treasure (calligraphy and manuscripts); designated 22 November 1952 |
| Date | Yuan dynasty, Taiding 2 (1325) |
| Calligrapher | Gulin Qingmao (Kurin Seimu, 1262–1329) |
| Format and material | One hanging scroll; ink on paper |
| Dimensions | 37.7 cm high, 99.2 cm wide |
| Owner | Gotoh Museum (Setagaya, Tokyo) |
| Location | 3-9-25 Kaminoge, Setagaya, Tokyo |
| Access | About a 5-minute walk from Kaminoge Station on the Tokyu Ōimachi Line |
| Viewing | No permanent display; shown only during selected special exhibitions. Check the museum schedule in advance. |
References
- National Database of Designated Cultural Properties (Agency for Cultural Affairs)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/201/655
- Gotoh Museum: Collection, Calligraphy by Gulin Qingmao, Farewell Verse
- https://www.gotoh-museum.or.jp/2020/10/18/08-136/
- Cultural Heritage Online (National Institutes for Cultural Heritage)
- https://bunka.nii.ac.jp/db/heritages/detail/197700
- Gotoh Museum: Visitor information and access
- https://www.gotoh-museum.or.jp/
Last verified: 2026.06.12