Sesson Shūkei (; 1504 – c. 1589), born Satake Heizō () was a

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 ...

Zen monk 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 ...

and

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

from 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 ...

. Shūkei was born a member of the

Satake clan The was a Japanese clan, Japanese samurai clan that claimed descent from the Minamoto clan. Its first power base was in Hitachi Province. The clan was subdued by Minamoto no Yoritomo in the late 12th century, but later entered Yoritomo's serv ...

, but left after being disinherited by his father and was inducted as a monk at Shōsō-ji temple, the Satake

bodaiji A in Japanese Buddhism is a temple which, generation after generation, takes care of a family's dead, giving them burial and performing ceremonies in their soul's favor.Iwanami kojien The name is derived from the term , which originally meant ju ...

. He is the most important painter who followed the style of

Sesshū Tōyō , also known simply as , was a Japanese Zen monk and painter who is considered a great master of Japanese ink painting. Initially inspired by Chinese landscapes, Sesshū's work holds a distinctively Japanese style that reflects Zen Buddhist ae ...

(1420-1506). On the other hand, there is a different opinion (jp) that he was not influenced or affected by Sesshū although he paid his respects to Sesshū (雪舟) by using the same Kanji, 雪 which means snow, in his name, Sesson (雪村). In any case Sesson was the master of ink painting that

Ibaraki Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Ibaraki Prefecture has a population of 2,828,086 (1 July 2023) and has a geographic area of . Ibaraki Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the north, ...

has ever produced, ranked with Sesshū and called "Sesshū of the west, Sesson of the east". His works are the classic examples of Japanese ink painting which was imported via many artists from

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. He produced many landscapes such as

Eight Views of Xiaoxiang The ''Eight Views of Xiaoxiang'' ( zh, t=瀟湘八景, p=Xiāoxiāng Bājǐng) are scenes of the Xiaoxiang region, in what is now modern Hunan Province, China, that were the subject of the poems and depicted in well-known drawings and paintings ...

and fictional characters such as , Li Tieguai and

Lü Dongbin Lü Dongbin is a legendary Chinese scholar and poet who lived during the Tang dynasty whose lifetime supposedly spanned two hundred and twenty years. Elevated to the status of an immortal in the Chinese cultural sphere by Daoists, he is one of ...

He travelled to

Aizu is the westernmost of the three regions of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, the other two regions being Nakadōri in the central area of the prefecture and Hamadōri in the east. As of October 1, 2010, it had a population of 291,838. The princ ...

at least twice to give lessons in painting to the ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and no ...

Ashina Moriuji was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the Azuchi–Momoyama period. He ruled Kurokawa Castle and its environs in Mutsu Province in northern Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of ...

– first in 1546, and then again in 1561 after Moriuki's retirement.

Gallery

File:Paysage de la Hsiao-Hsiang par le peintre japonais Sesson Shukei (1504-après 1589).jpg, ''Landscape of the Hsiao-Hsiang'' File:Landscape of the Four Seasons by Sesson Shukei (Koriyama City Museum of Art)l.jpg, ''Landscape of the Four Seasons'' File:'Egret, Moon and Wave', ink on paper by Sesson Shûkei.jpg, ''Egret, Moon, and Wave'' File:Paysage sous la tempête par le peintre japonais Sesson Shukei (1504-après 1589).jpg, ''Tempest'' File:Faucon sous un pin par le peintre japonais Sesson Shukei (1504-après 1589).jpg, ''Falcon Under a Pine'' File:'Mynah Birds and Pigeons' by Sesson Shukei, Honolulu.jpg, ''Mynah Birds and Pigeons''

References

Literature

* Frank Feltens, Yukio Lippit (Eds.): ''Sesson Shukei. A Zen Monk-Painter in Medieval Japan'', Hirmer publishers, Munich 2021, ISBN 978-3-7774-3633-3.

External links

Bridge of dreams: the Mary Griggs Burke collection of Japanese art
a catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Sesson Shukei (see index) Japanese painters Japanese Buddhist clergy 1504 births Year of death unknown 16th-century Japanese artists 16th-century Japanese painters Zenga {{Buddhist-clergy-stub