Mugaku Sogen

"Cutting the Spring Breeze Throughout heaven and earth there is not a piece of ground where a single stick could be inserted; I am glad that all things are void, myself and the world: Honored be the sword, three feet long, wielded by the great Yüan swordsmen; For it is like cutting a spring breeze in a flash of lightning."

"Hogo acquired importance as a calligraphic art expressing the personality and the cultural attainments of the zen priest writer... Typical of such is the hogo written by Mugaku Sogen (1226-1286) and presented to Ichio Ingo, ( -1281)."

"When the Japanese Zen priest Mugaku Sogen (1226-1286) was in China and threatened by invading Mongol troops, he composed a fourline poem. Years later another Zen priest, Sesson Yūbai (1290-1347), when he was in prison and threatened with death, took Mugaku's poem and, using each line as the opening verse of a new poem,"