The photograph of Kodojin inside this book is very much what the title leads us to expect -- an elderly man in a kimono, with snowy white hair, a long straggling beard and a distant look in his eyes. It is the figure of a sage, familiar from Chinese paintings. But what is surprising is that the man himself is of relatively recent vintage.
An interest in Chinese-style painting led Stephen Addiss to the work of Kodojin, whose pen-name means "the old Taoist."
Tao, or "the Way," originated in ancient China and has provided a philosophy of life for centuries of painters and poets, scholars and contemplatives. Kodojin was, in the most traditional manner, all of these rolled into one. Addiss, who teaches Oriental art at a university in the United States, first encountered Kodojin as painter.