was one of the first ''
suiboku'' (ink wash) style
Zen
Zen (; from Chinese: ''Chán''; in Korean: ''Sŏn'', and Vietnamese: ''Thiền'') is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty by blending Indian Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogacara and Madhyamaka phil ...
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
painters in the
Muromachi Period
The , also known as the , is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate ( or ), which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi ...
(15th century). He was probably also a teacher of
Tenshō Shūbun
was a Japanese Zen Buddhist monk and painter of the Muromachi period.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Shūbun''" in
Biography
Shūbun was born in the late 14th century in Ōmi Province and became a professional painter around 1403. He ...
at the
Shōkoku-ji
, formally identified as , is a Buddhist temple in northern Kyoto, first founded in 1382 by Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, with the existing temple complex having undergone several periods of extensive reconstruction and rebuilding in the succeeding eras. ...
monastery in
Kyoto
Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...
.
The best known of his paintings belongs to
Taizō-in, a sub-temple of
Myōshin-ji
is a temple complex in Kyoto, Japan, which serves as the head temple of the associated branch of Rinzai Zen Buddhism. The Myōshin-ji School is by far the largest school in Rinzai Zen, approximately as big as the other thirteen branches combined: ...
in Kyoto, which is entitled ''
Catching a Catfish with a Gourd'' (c. 1413). It shows a comical-looking man fishing against a background of a winding river and a bamboo grove. It is thought to have been inspired by a riddle set by the
Ashikaga ''
shōgun
, officially , was the title of the military rulers of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, except during parts of the Kamak ...
'', "How do you catch a catfish with a gourd?" It can be viewed as a piece of Zen humour, or as a
kōan
A ( ; ; zh, c=公案, p=gōng'àn ; ; ) is a narrative, story, dialogue, question, or statement from Chan Buddhism, Chinese Chan Buddhist lore, supplemented with commentaries, that is used in Zen Buddhism, Buddhist practice in different way ...
in visual form designed to provoke the viewer into new ways of "seeing". Josetsu was an amazing figure in ink painting at that period of time and also influenced many painters as well.
See also
*
Tenshō Shūbun
was a Japanese Zen Buddhist monk and painter of the Muromachi period.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Shūbun''" in
Biography
Shūbun was born in the late 14th century in Ōmi Province and became a professional painter around 1403. He ...
*
Japanese painting
is one of the oldest and most highly refined of the Japanese visual arts, encompassing a wide variety of genres and styles. As with the history of Japanese arts in general, the long history of Japanese painting exhibits synthesis and competiti ...
References
*
*
External links
*
Japanese painters
Rinzai Buddhists
Buddhist artists
Zenga
15th-century Japanese painters
Chinese emigrants to Japan
{{Japan-painter-stub