Andrew C. Mellon Curatorial Intern Jon Soriano discusses the relationship between Zen Buddhism and calligraphy, offering a closer analysis of scrolls by Ingen Ryuki and Mokuan Shoto, Chinese émigré monks who became two of the most renowned calligraphers in the Japanese Obaku school of Zen Buddhism.

A PhD candidate in the history of art at UC Berkeley, Soriano specializes in the Buddhist art of East and Central Asia. He has taught classes on the art history of East Asian calligraphy, and has assisted Senior Curator for Asian Art Julia White with the exhibition Meditation in Motion: Zen Calligraphy from the Stuart Katz Collection.