This is one of Seisetsu's trademark fierce Daruma portraits. Daruma's intensity is balanced by the inscription, describing a pacific scene taken from nature. Like most people, Seisetsu had both a hard and soft dimension to his character.
Seki Seisetsu was born in Hyogo Prefecture, and was adopted at birth by a Zen priest. He spent his entire life as a monk, and served as abbot of the major Zen temple Tenryu-ji in Kyoto for twenty years. Unlike most Zen masters who concentrate on calligraphy, Seisetsu loved to paint, and he brushed hundreds of paintings on all manner of themes, sometimes using light colors, which is also unusual in Zen art. Portraits of Daruma and Kannon were his signature themes. Details of Seisetsu's life and art can be found in The Art of Twentieth-Century Zen (Shambhala, 2000).
