Daruma (Bodhidharma) is regarded as the founder of Zen. It is said that in the Suzan Shourin-ji Temple, Daruma faced the wall and continued meditating for nine years; however, there is also a theory that this legend resulted from a misperception of Daruma’s “hekikan” (literally, “staring at the wall”.) Hekikan comprised the characteristics of Daruma’s religious doctrine of “looking by becoming like a wall,” or in other words, “Zen in which truth is discovered in an unmoving state like a wall.” This thought was assumed by the later established Chinese Zen; for example, it became the definition of “zazen,” which is said to be a word created by “Rokuso Enō” (sixth leader Enou.)

Sokushū Akiyoshi is an abbot of the Hōshun-in sub-temple of the Daitokuji temple. “Jakunen-fudou” means that if you have a calm and silent heart, you will never lose yourself, and you will be able to attain enlightenment. I feel as if this work expresses the meaning of Daruma’s hekikan.