On 'Within Nothing, an Endless Store'

mu ichi motsu chuu mu jin zou — Within Nothing, an Endless Store.

On the origin

From a verse by the Northern Song poet Su Shi (Su Dongpo), “In Praise of the Blank Silk” (Baizhi zan, in the Dongpo Chan-xi collection): “The undrawn silk—how lofty its intent; once color is laid on, it falls into duality. Within not one thing, an inexhaustible store—there are flowers, there is the moon, there are towers and terraces.” Later taken up as a Zen phrase and a saying of the tea room.

On the reading

Where not one thing is held, an inexhaustible store remains. In the blank field — flowers, the moon, the high towers; all that was let go, still there. The nothing here is not lack, but the room in which everything fits.

On the garment

The seal for this phrase was hand-carved in Tokyo by the artist Satake Hōsen. The front carries this phrase’s seal; the back and inside label carry the Hōsen seal (寳千), printed in vermilion.

The garment is Bella + Canvas 3001 (short sleeve) or Gildan 2400 (long sleeve). A vessel for the word, not the subject itself.

― hosen, tokyo