According to The Collected Artwork of Rev. Isshi, published in 1926, this painting was in the collection of Watanabe Katsuzō of Tokyo. It was subsequently acquired by Zen master Yokoyama Bunkō, after whose death it was donated to the Institute for Zen Studies ,where it is now one of the finest works in the Chōshōdō Archive.
         The story of Zen master Gutei holding up a finger whenever he was asked about Zen is a popular one found in many Zen koan collections, including the Blue Cliff Record (case 19) and the Mumonkan (case 3), and it has for centuries been a common subject for Zen paintings. Isshi Bunshu’s painting is of a type commonly known as a “fan painting.” These paintings were not actually used for fans but were usually displayed on folding screens (byōbu) or as hanging scrolls, as in the present case. Isshi’s unusual life—proudly independent yet marked by the vicissitudes of fortune—has long attracted the interest of intellectuals such as Tokutomi Sohō (1863-1957), Tsuji Zennosuke (1877-1955), and Karaki Junzō (1904-1980), whose writings on the master have created a legion of Isshi fans and collectors of his artwork. (From Zen Bunka 66)