Background
The practice of showing 墨跡 of 禅 masters started in China's Song dynasty (900-1300)
It came together with the tea drinking to Japan in the XIII century, but while 禅 became popular in Japan and paintings were often used (for example, in Ashikaga shogunate), the hanging of 墨跡 didn't catch on until the XVI century.
It was, naturally, 村田珠光 who introduced the practice of hanging 墨跡 in the tearoom. He was a 禅 student of 一休宗純, who counted the contemplation of scrolls as one of the ways to attain enlightenment; and 村田珠光 tried to develop CNY as a spiritual practice.
So between 1550 and 1650 the trend was initially to hang more
paintings than 禅語; but finally reversed! By 1750, it's the rule to hang scrolls.
利休 said in the
南方録:
no utensil ranks with the hanging scroll in significance and
writings done by men in secular life should not be displayed
Record
The following list is compiled from scrolls I have come across personally. Check also Froisland's list.
| 漢字 | season | translation |
| 日日是好日 | - | every day is a good day |
| 平常心是道 | - | never-changing heart |
| 冬嶺孤松秀 | 冬 | on a snowy hill, a lone pine stands out (my Christmas card for 2021) |
| 松樹千年翠 | New Year's | a lone pine, green for a thousand years |
| 閑坐聴松風 | - | rest, sit and listen to the 松風 |
| 掬水月在手 | 秋 | scooping up water, the moon is in my hand |
| 没絃琴 | 七夕 | |
| 無一物 | - | not one thing |
| 秋空一声雁 | 秋 | autumn sky, the sound of a goose |
| 主人公 | - | master yourself |
| 千里同風 | 秋 | thousand leagues, the same wind |
| 随処作主 | - | wherever you are, you are the master |
| 枝上一蝉吟 | 七月 | on the branch, a single circada is singing |
| 百事如意 | - | everything as you wish |
| 異体同心 | 1.8. | different bodies, same spirit |
Literature