Mu Ch'i's Persimmons-- that's this painting.
The original is only brought out and shown only
to a few invited and selected guests one time a year.
And you have to arrange for that months ahead maybe.
If they don't know you, they probably won't even answer.
If nobody will speak for you--
now, in Japan, you don't just go in
and tell people how great you are and give them your card.
And expect it to work.
You have to have somebody vouch for you.
You have to have connections--
somebody that they know that says, oh, this
is a good person.
Now, that's the way it actually works in the real world anyway,
but you know.
So one story about this that I heard
from one of the other priests.
Some years ago a somewhat pushy [SPEAKING JAPANESE] that is
to say a person who made a whole lot of money in the short
time--
up in Tokyo announced that he wanted to see the Mu
Ch'i's Persimmons painting.
And he was willing to donate some money to the temple
and so forth.
And without even exactly waiting for a proper introduction
or invitation, he arrived on the day that he knew.
Because it's listed in something,
some book, on what day that they show it.
So he turned up and was greeted in the [SPEAKING JAPANESE]
the entrance way.
And they were nice to him.
They led him into a room and they said, please sit here,
and we'll bring you some tea.
And they brought him some tea.
And he looked around.
And there was a painting in the [SPEAKING JAPANESE]..
And so he went in on his knees and he looked at it
and gazed at it.
And then when the people came back, he enthused about it
and talked about it.
And then, finally, [INAUDIBLE] came in.
And after 20 minutes of this, and the man
was still saying what a wonderful painting it is.
I'm so happy to see it.
And [INAUDIBLE] said, oh, do you want to see the real one?
What he had put up was a copy.
That was really humiliating.
So they did show the real one.
Well, Ruth Stephan saw the real one.
And I think she saw it two times,
which is almost a lifetime record for almost anybody.
I have a reproduction of it.
You can buy through--
or could in those days--
through a very fine printer in Kyoto,
you could buy a scale reproduction of it.
And I'm sure that's what [INAUDIBLE]
had hanging on the wall.
So I have one of those, and I took it to my mounter--
scroll mounter.
And with a lot of discussion, we put a proper rolling--
roll up scroll mounting on it.
So I still have it.
And I hang it, as the poem says, generally in the fall
because that's what persimmons become ripe.
And so it's a plant that belongs with the fall season.
So this is called "Mu Ch'i's Persimmons."
Quoting at the beginning here Dogen, 12th century,
the zen philosopher where he said,
"there is no remedy for satisfying hunger other
than a painted rice cake."
He goes on at some length in that essay
that people think that the paintings aren't real.
He said, "you'll never understand reality
if you go on thinking like that."
And then he says, "there's no cure for it
other than a painted rice cake."
"On a back wall down the hall lit by a side glass door is
the scroll of Mu Ch'i's great Sumi painting--
Persimmons.
The wind weights hanging from the axles hold it still.
Perfect statement of emptiness, no other than form.
The twig and the stock still on--
the way they sell them in the market even know.
The original is in Kyoto at a lovely Rinzai temple
where they show it once a year.
This one is a perfect copy from Benrido.
I chose the mounting elements myself
with the advice of the mounter.
I hang it every fall.
And, now, to these overripe persimmons from Mike
and Barbara's Orchard, napkin in hand, I bend over the sink
and suck the sweet orange goop.
That's how I like it.
Gripping a little twig, those painted persimmons sure cure
hunger."
The species represented there is called tamopan.
I saw them in China.
I'd never seen that species in the United States.
They have eight or 10 different persimmon species
in Japan and China.
We only have two here--
the hard ones and the soft ones.
What are they called?