Kirin - Premium T-Shirt

This Zen calligraphy T-shirt carries five characters brushed by the Edo-period monk Daidō Bunka: Shōrin ikkaku sen, "the auspicious kirin has one sharp horn." The legendary Kirin in it is one of the strangest and gentlest in East Asian art.

The design

"The auspicious kirin has one sharp horn." The kirin (Chinese qilin) is a mythical beast and one of the four auspicious creatures of Chinese tradition, together with the dragon, the phoenix and the tortoise. Texts describe it as so gentle that it won't harm a living thing, not even the grass under its hooves. Because a kirin is so rare, its single horn has long been a byword for something you'll hardly ever find. (In modern Japanese, kirin is also the everyday word for giraffe, which is a much less mystical animal.)

In Zen, the line is said to go back to the Chinese master Dahui Zonggao (1089-1163). Dahui told his monks to stop picking the moment apart: “The auspicious kirin has only one horn.” Something genuine and rare doesn’t need explaining. The single horn also stands for the concept of non-duality. Two horns point two ways. One horn points to what Zen calls “not-two”: Meeting life directly, as one.

We reproduced the brushwork faithfully, and balance it with our red Kokin Denju seal.

The artist

Daidō Bunka (1680-1752) was a Japanese Zen monk active in the first half of the 18th century.

Why you'll love it

• A daily reminder that the rare thing is usually the gentle one
• A faithful reproduction of an 18th-century Zen scroll
• Bold black brushwork that looks good with jeans, in the dōjō or on the cushion
• A thoughtful gift for Zen practitioners, calligraphy lovers and anyone born with one sharp point

EU representative: HONSON VENTURES LIMITED, gpsr@honsonventures.com, 3, Gnaftis House flat 102, Limassol, Mesa Geitonia, 4003, CY

Product information: Comfort Colors® 1717, two year warranty in the EU and Northern Ireland

Care instructions: Machine wash: cold (max 30C or 90F), Do not bleach, Tumble dry: low heat, Iron, steam or dry: low heat, Do not dryclean