SPECIAL GALLERIES ..... DARUMA MUSEUM (03): Hermits (sennin)

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Daruma Pilgrims Gallery

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Mountain hermits, sennin 仙人

The recluse from the political scene has always been an ideal of the Chinese and later Japanese intellectuals.

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A hermit (from the Greek eρημος erēmos, signifying "desert", "uninhabited", hence "desert-dweller") is a person who lives to some greater or lesser degree in seclusion and/or isolation from society.

Originally the term was applied to a Christian who lives the eremitic life out of a religious conviction, namely the Desert Theology of the Old Testament (i.e. the 40 years wandering in the desert that was meant to bring about a change of heart).

Sennin is a common Japanese character name.
For example, Ikkaku Sennin (一角仙人 "One-horned Immortal") was a Noh play by Komparu Zenchiku (金春禅竹, 1405-1471).

The Japanese legend of Gama Sennin (蝦蟇仙人 "Toad Immortal") is based upon Chinese Liu Hai (劉海), a fabled 10th-century alchemist who learned the secret of immortality from the Chan Chu ("Three-legged Money Toad").
Gama Sennin is also a name for Jiraiya in Naruto; comparable with Kame Sennin (亀仙人 "Turtle Immortal") for Muten-Rôshi in Dragon Ball.

Read more in the WIKIPEDIA !

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China

Three Hermits: plum, chrysanthemum and narcissus

Lin Bu (967 – 1028), a scholar, did not marry but took the plum blossoms as his bride.

Tao Quian (365 – 427), a poet and official, renounced his position and retreated to plant chrysanthemums in his garden.

Zha Mengjian (1199 – 1267), an imperial family member of the Sung, painted narcissus as a means of self-cultivation in his times of upheavel of the Mongol invasions.

These three flowers, who make it through the harsh winter months, are together a symbol of eremits and hermits, who renounce worldly positions and pursue self realization and self cultivation in a remote atmosphere.

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Chen Hongshou (Chinese, 1598-1652):
The Three Hermits: Plum, Chrysanthemum, and Narcissus
Chinese, Ming dynasty, ink and color on silk, Wan-go H. C. Weng Collection,
photography courtesy Wan-go H.C. Weng,
courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

quote from ARTBLOG NET

"What is a mere painting's worth, except that it has accompanied three members of my family," he inscribed in 1889, adding that his father and then his brother had carried it with them before they died. "
. . . Every time I unroll the scroll, tears flow uncontrollably."

Weng Tonghe

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Tang Dynasty Prime Minister Li Deyu and
the Three Hermits

Li Deyu was a Prime Minister in the Tang Dynasty. Before he became the Prime Minister, he met three people with special powers. All three were hermits.

One day Li met a hermit named Guan Chenshan. At that time, he was a low-ranking official assigned to guard the north gate of a city. Guan told him, “You will be promoted and serve as a secretary for the Emperor next year. But you will actually work for the Crown Prince.” Li was so astonished by the hermit’s words that his face turned white. The hermit seemed to regret his words and hurriedly got up to leave. As he was leaving, Li asked him, “Why will I work for the Crown Prince?” The hermit replied, “You have a predestined relationship with the Crown Prince in several past lives, so you will.”

In the Fall of that year, Li Deyu was summoned to the capital. Shortly after, the Crown Prince usurped the throne and became Emperor Muzong. In January of the following year, Li Deyu was assigned to work in the imperial court and to work closely with the new Emperor.

While he was serving as a high-ranking counselor to the Emperor, a hermit from central Min (now Fujian Province) came to visit him. When Li greeted him, the hermit said, “The current situation will not last. If you don’t leave, you will be appointed Prime Minister. However, a disaster will follow. If you apply for a position in a remote place, the person who replaces you here will suffer. Ten years from now, you will become Prime Minister and return to the capital from the west.” In the fall of that year, Li asked for and received a post to guard the remote city of Wumen. One year later, he went to the capital to pay his respect to the Emperor and was sent to guard the border township of Nanyan.

At the end of that Fall, a county official accompanied by a Taoist [Someone who follows the "Tao" or "way of the universe"] from the Ye Shire came to visit Li. Before the Taoist even walked to his seat, he said to Li, “You will be appointed General of the Southwest. You will receive your seal for the General’s post before October 15.”

The events that occured later was exactly like what the three hermits had predicted. The time frame they predicted was also very accurate. The person who replaced Li as a high-ranking counselor to the Emperor was sent into exile shortly after Li left for his post in the remote city of Wumen. Ten years later, Li Deyu became the Prime Minister, where he indeed held an official post in the west before his appointment to become the Prime Minister came.

Adapted from Chuqiong Zhi
© 2001-2003 ClearHarmony Net

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Kanzan and Jittoku 寒山拾得

Ryokan san, 良寛さんRyookan

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hermit
good bye bye
to kigo mountain

仙人の　さらば　さらばと　季語の山
sen-nin no saraba saraba to Kigo no yama

Sakuo

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Gama Sennin
(蝦蟇仙人 "Toad Immortal")