A humorous image of blind men trying to describe an elephant, a scene from popular Zen lore, by Okada Kakyo enclosed in the original signed wooden box. It is Ink on paper in a silk border featuring porcelain rollers. The scroll measures 55 x 206.5 cm (21-1/2 x 81 inches) and is in overall fine condition.
A group of blind men once came upon an elephant, each wishing to understand what sort of creature stood before them. One reached out and grasped the trunk, declaring, “Ah, it is like a great serpent.” Another placed his hands upon the massive leg and argued, “No, it is more like a sturdy tree.” A third ran his palms along the animal’s broad side and said, “Surely it is like a wall.” Yet another touched the sharp tusk and insisted, “It is a spear.” One held the ear and thought it a fan, while another caught the tail and was certain it was a rope. Soon they fell into dispute, each man defending his own truth and condemning the others as mistaken. But though each touched the elephant, none grasped the whole. And so it is with us: we take hold of some small part of reality and call it the truth, forgetting that truth is vaster than any single view. Only when the clamor of argument falls silent may the great shape of things be seen as one.
Okada Kakkyo（Genjiro, 1894-1981） was born in Tokyo and studied Yamato-e under Kikkawa Reika.
