In Buddhist tradition, the Sanskrit word arhat (羅漢; chn: luohan, jpn: rakan) refers to one who has attained spiritual perfection. In Chinese and Japanese Buddhism, the term often denotes the original disciples of the Buddha.

In this work, Shimizu divides the pictorial space by placing four arhats in the lower half, rendered almost as a single large blotch, with only their slightly caricatured faces allowing us to distinguish them. The upper half features a written phrase in a calligraphic style that references standard script, though it is executed with broken, irregular, and highly expressive brushstrokes—unlike most of the works in this section.

At the age of seventy, Shimizu chose to renounce his Buddhist vows and dedicate himself entirely to the life of an artist. His paintings and calligraphies have been described as impulsives and, at times, grotesques. Nevertheless, Buddhist subjects remained central to his work, as this example clearly demonstrates.