Katsu! Zen Shout - T-Shirt

This Zen calligraphy T-shirt carries a single character: 喝, katsu – the Zen shout masters used to cut through a student's thinking in one breath. It was brushed in 17th-century Japan by the Chinese Chan master Dōsha Chōgen (1602–1662), the teacher who confirmed the awakening of the young Bankei. His own seal is printed with it, reproduced from the original scroll rather than replaced with ours.

The design

The design comes from a small hanging scroll. On the original scroll, the large 喝 stands beside two short lines in Dōsha's hand: "Guest and host are clearly distinct," and "the bare-handed thief talks far too much."

Both lines point back to Linji (Rinzai), the master whose school made the shout famous. In the Record of Linji, the heads of two halls once shouted at each other at the same moment. When a monk asked whether there had been a guest and a host in that exchange, Linji answered: "Guest and host are clearly distinct."

"Bare-handed thief" was the name Xuefeng gave Linji, a thief who robs you in broad daylight without any tools. Calling him a chatterbox is classic Zen mock criticism: Even a single shout already says too much.

For this T-shirt we kept only the essentials: The character itself and Dōsha's original seal. 

The artist

Dōsha Chōgen (Chinese: Daozhe Chaoyuan) crossed from China to Nagasaki in 1651, three years before Yinyuan Longqi (Ingen), who went on to found Japan's Ōbaku school. Dōsha's stay was short, but it mattered. The young Bankei Yōtaku came to study with him, and in 1652 Dōsha confirmed Bankei's awakening. Bankei, according to his biographies, tore up the certificate Dōsha began writing for him. He did not need a document to prove what he had seen. He later became one of the most original teachers of Japanese Zen.

Why you'll love it

• A daily reminder to cut through the chatter, inside and out
• A faithful reproduction of a 17th-century scroll, with the master's original seal
• A bold, minimal design that works in the dōjō, after sitting or on the street
• A thoughtful gift for Zen practitioners, martial artists and lovers of Japanese calligraphy