無事是貴人 buji kore kinin The One with Nothing Left to Seek Is the Noble One

無事是貴人 (buji kore kinin): the one with nothing left to seek is the noble one.

無事是貴人 is a line from the sermons of the Zen master Linji. In those sermons, 無事 is where the seeking mind comes to rest. The noble one is the person of 無事, one who has stopped running after things. A Zen dictionary of 1915 gives the line its own entry. The entry describes one who has seen through to the ground of their own mind and stands free. Such a person, the entry says, is truly one of great nobility. The five characters say no affairs, is and person of rank.

After 無事是貴人, Linji's sermon goes straight on: just don't contrive; only be ordinary. In the same sermons, being ordinary is putting on clothes, eating rice and lying down when tired. A commentary printed in Japan in 1691 pictures the true person of 無事 in the midst of bustle and haste. That person, the commentary says, is like a wooden man looking at flowers and birds. A Zen teacher's talks, printed in 1907, say this 無事 is the 無事 in the midst of being busy.

From the Edo period 無事是貴人 also circulated in Japan as a common saying for a safe and untroubled life. A story by Kyokutei Bakin makes the line a household maxim. Whether you take it as the Zen line or as the common saying is yours. The scroll is read buji kore kinin, the reading printed beside the characters on a woodblock of 1790. Buji kore kijin is common in print too.

The line is the Chinese Zen master Linji's (臨済, d. 866), from a sermon in the Record of Linji: 無事是貴人、但莫造作、秖是平常, the one with nothing left to seek is the noble one; just don't contrive, only be ordinary. In Japan it was printed in the Record by 1437 and commented on in Japanese by 1632, and from the Edo period it also circulated as a common saying for a safe and untroubled life.

We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 無事是貴人.

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The scrolls are 12 1/4" W × 43" H (31 × 109 cm) with real silk borders and Japanese paper that are layered so the scroll hangs straight and will not warp over time. The scrolls themselves are made by Sankō (株式会社三幸) in Gifu prefecture, which has been making high quality scrolls since 1947, and we have worked with Sankō for over two decades.

Eri Takase was born and raised in Osaka, Japan, and holds the rank of Shihan, the highest rank in Japanese calligraphy, from the Bokuteki-kai and the Bunka-shodo. About Master Takase