Hyakusetsu was a Buddhist priest of the O_baku sect of Zen Buddhism in Japan. He became friends with the courtier Konoe Iehiro (1667-1736), a renowned calligrapher and tea master. Through Iehiro, Hyakusetsu was introduced to cultural circles in Kyoto. Eventually he became a well-known painter, calligrapher, tea-master, and poet in his own right. Here, Hyakusetsu used his buoyant semi-cursive script for a poem exalting the boundless compassion of the Buddhist deity, Jizo_.