Japanese Scroll Depicting Daruma

One great looping stroke of the brush, two eyes, and a very long stare.

This scroll depicting Daruma comes from Japan, 20th century, in ink on paper. Daruma, the Indian monk traditionally credited with founding Zen in China, became a favorite subject for Japanese Zen painters, who liked to catch his fierce concentration in as few strokes as they could manage. His figure sits at the foot of the sheet in a single thick black ring. Above it, columns of flowing calligraphy climb toward red seals, inside a blue patterned mount. Seventy-eight inches long, sixteen and a half wide.

He sat facing a wall for years, the story goes. The gaze suggests it.