WEBVTT

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Mu Ch'i's Persimmons--
that's this painting.

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The original is only
brought out and shown only

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to a few invited and selected
guests one time a year.

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And you have to arrange for
that months ahead maybe.

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If they don't know you, they
probably won't even answer.

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If nobody will speak for you--

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now, in Japan, you
don't just go in

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and tell people how great you
are and give them your card.

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And expect it to work.

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You have to have
somebody vouch for you.

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You have to have connections--

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somebody that they know
that says, oh, this

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is a good person.

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Now, that's the way it actually
works in the real world anyway,

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but you know.

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So one story about
this that I heard

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from one of the other priests.

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Some years ago a somewhat pushy
[SPEAKING JAPANESE] that is

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to say a person who made a
whole lot of money in the short

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time--

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up in Tokyo announced that
he wanted to see the Mu

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Ch'i's Persimmons painting.

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And he was willing to donate
some money to the temple

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and so forth.

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And without even exactly waiting
for a proper introduction

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or invitation, he arrived
on the day that he knew.

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Because it's listed
in something,

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some book, on what
day that they show it.

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So he turned up and was greeted
in the [SPEAKING JAPANESE]

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the entrance way.

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And they were nice to him.

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They led him into a room and
they said, please sit here,

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and we'll bring you some tea.

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And they brought him some tea.

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And he looked around.

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And there was a painting
in the [SPEAKING JAPANESE]..

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And so he went in on his
knees and he looked at it

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and gazed at it.

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And then when the people came
back, he enthused about it

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and talked about it.

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And then, finally,
[INAUDIBLE] came in.

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And after 20 minutes
of this, and the man

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was still saying what a
wonderful painting it is.

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I'm so happy to see it.

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And [INAUDIBLE] said, oh, do
you want to see the real one?

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What he had put up was a copy.

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That was really humiliating.

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So they did show the real one.

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Well, Ruth Stephan
saw the real one.

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And I think she
saw it two times,

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which is almost a lifetime
record for almost anybody.

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I have a reproduction of it.

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You can buy through--

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or could in those days--

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through a very fine
printer in Kyoto,

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you could buy a scale
reproduction of it.

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And I'm sure that's
what [INAUDIBLE]

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had hanging on the wall.

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So I have one of those, and
I took it to my mounter--

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scroll mounter.

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And with a lot of discussion,
we put a proper rolling--

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roll up scroll mounting on it.

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So I still have it.

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And I hang it, as the poem
says, generally in the fall

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because that's what
persimmons become ripe.

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And so it's a plant that
belongs with the fall season.

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So this is called "Mu
Ch'i's Persimmons."

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Quoting at the beginning
here Dogen, 12th century,

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the zen philosopher
where he said,

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"there is no remedy for
satisfying hunger other

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than a painted rice cake."

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He goes on at some
length in that essay

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that people think that
the paintings aren't real.

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He said, "you'll never
understand reality

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if you go on
thinking like that."

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And then he says,
"there's no cure for it

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other than a painted rice cake."

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"On a back wall down the hall
lit by a side glass door is

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the scroll of Mu Ch'i's
great Sumi painting--

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Persimmons.

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The wind weights hanging
from the axles hold it still.

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Perfect statement of
emptiness, no other than form.

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The twig and the
stock still on--

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the way they sell them
in the market even know.

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The original is in Kyoto
at a lovely Rinzai temple

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where they show it once a year.

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This one is a perfect
copy from Benrido.

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I chose the mounting
elements myself

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with the advice of the mounter.

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I hang it every fall.

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And, now, to these overripe
persimmons from Mike

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and Barbara's Orchard, napkin
in hand, I bend over the sink

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and suck the sweet orange goop.

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That's how I like it.

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Gripping a little twig, those
painted persimmons sure cure

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hunger."

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The species represented
there is called tamopan.

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I saw them in China.

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I'd never seen that species
in the United States.

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They have eight or 10
different persimmon species

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in Japan and China.

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We only have two here--

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the hard ones and the soft ones.

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What are they called?

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