Late Autumn Showers (Shigure)

On the tips of withered grasses Just a stretch of sunlight remains -late autumn shower! Rengetsu The poetess nun Otagaki Rengetsu, whose Buddhist name means Lotus Moon, was renowned for her profound poetic images and her beautiful brushwork. In this poem she describes an autumnal scene of dry grasses, their slender points touched by the still, lingering light of a vanishing sun just as it suddenly begins to rain. Rengetsu focuses on the moment and clarifies a Buddhist truth, the unchanging transience of time. Her short poem is written in calligraphic wisps of ink and ribbons of line that appear to float over the surface of the scroll like streamers in the wind. Written when Rengetsu was nearly eighty, this work reveals her at the height of her artistic powers.