The Ox Herder: A Zen Parable Illustrated [Hardcover]

Stephanie Wada (Author), Kuoan (Author), Gen P. Sakamoto (Author, Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2002

In the Buddhist parable of the ox herder, a herdsman's search for his missing ox is likened to an individual's journey toward enlightenment. Buddhist masters composed this parable, whose origins reach as far back as the literature of ancient India, to guide students of Buddhism in their spiritual journeys. The Ox Herder: A Zen Parable Illustrated presents the earliest known Japanese handscroll illustrating the parable - the only one with paintings in colour. Unlike many early Japanese handscrolls and books, it is intact, from its preface explaining the basic tenets of Buddhism to its signed inscription dated 1278. Extremely popular among Zen Buddhists in medieval Japan, "The Ten Ox Herder Songs", as the parable is best known, divides the herder's journey into ten stages, each illustrated by circularly framed images accompanied by a four-line poem. The paintings, rendered in the graceful traditional manner of Japanese narrative illustration, show the progress of the ox herder (a seeker of truth) toward enlightenment (the ox). Appearing with the ten pictures are the preface and the ten songs that accompany the images, both in the original and in translation, and the final inscription. Stephanie Wada's introduction traces the history of this particular work within Japanese Zen Buddhist painting. For students of Zen Buddhism, Japanese art and seekers of truth from all walks of life, The Ox Herder: A Zen Parable Illustrated offers ancient lessions of spiritual growth and beauty.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Since the ninth century, students of Zen Buddhism have drawn a parallel between the individual path to enlightenment and the story of the herder and his missing ox. There are 10 stages in the parable, beginning with the search for the ox, in which a boy is racked with doubt because "Nothing has been lost in the first place,/ So what is the use of searching?" In the final stage, the boy reappears as the Buddha of the Future, enlightened. The scroll reprinted here is the oldest known version of the Japanese Ten Oxherding Songs, dating to 1278, and the only known example with illustrations in color along with the calligraphy. An introduction by Stephanie Wada, associate curator of the Mary and Jackson Burke foundation (which holds the manuscript) explains, in scholarly terms, both the story and the origins of this scroll and its ten circular drawings (one for each song) and poems. Nothing she writes, however, can have the impact of the eighth part of the parable: with just a wide, empty circle from which both the boy and the ox have vanished, this stage indicates that the attachment to "self" and earthly things has been relinquished. The delicacy and unstudied precision of the calligraphy's brushwork furthers the feeling. Even a Zen novice can appreciate the message of this parable, lovingly inked more than 700 years ago.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Stephanie Wada is Associate Curator at the Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, one of the most extensive private collections of Japanese art outside of Japan. She has taught courses in Asian art at Temple Univesity, Parsons School of Design, Columbia University, and The City College of New York.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 80 pages
• Publisher: George Braziller (December 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807615110
• ISBN-13: 978-0807615119
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 8.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,198,073 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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