# The Bird's Nest Patriarch

- By: Tawaraya Sōtatsu (Japanese, c. 1570–c. 1640)
- Date: early to mid-1600s
- Medium: hanging scroll; ink on paper
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: Image: 95.8 x 38.7 cm (37 11/16 x 15 1/4 in.); Overall: 187.3 x 50.8 cm (73 3/4 x 20 in.)
- Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
- Credit line: Norman O. Stone and Ella A. Stone Memorial Fund
- Museum: [Cleveland Museum of Art](https://clevelandart.org/art/1958.289)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/cma/1958.289/1958.289_web.jpg
- Who can see it: Little Ones profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Tawaraya Sōtatsu’s painting was inspired by a 1602 Chinese book that featured images of legendary Chinese Buddhist experts and Daoist sages. The monk portrayed here is Niaoge, which literally means “Bird’s Nest.” He was a Zen practitioner who favored the isolation of treetops, from which he offered advice to the perplexed. The posture of the single figure suggests a dialogue with someone below. Sōtatsu was a master of the “boneless” (mokkotsu), or un-outlined, style of ink painting that relies on layered pools of ink wash for effect.