was one of the first ''
suiboku
Ink wash painting ( zh, t=水墨畫, s=水墨画, p=shuǐmòhuà; ja, 水墨画, translit=suiboku-ga or ja, 墨絵, translit=sumi-e; ko, 수묵화, translit=sumukhwa) is a type of Chinese ink brush painting which uses black ink, such as tha ...
'' (ink wash) style
Zen Japanese painters in the
Muromachi Period
The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by t ...
(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
History
Shūbun was born in the late 14th century in Ōmi Province and became a professional painter around 1403. He set ...
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 (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...
. A Chinese immigrant, he was naturalised in 1370 and is known as "the father of Japanese ink painting".
The best known of his paintings belongs to
Taizō-in is the oldest sub-temple () of the Myōshin-ji Rinzai Zen Buddhist temple, situated in the northwest of Kyoto, Japan. It was founded by Zen priest Muinsoin in 1404. The original temple buildings were burned during the Ōnin War (1467-1477), and ...
, a sub-temple of
Myōshin-ji 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 Ashikaga (足利) may refer to:
* Ashikaga clan (足利氏 ''Ashikaga-shi''), a Japanese samurai clan descended from the Minamoto clan; and that formed the basis of the eponymous shogunate
** Ashikaga shogunate (足利幕府 ''Ashikaga bakufu''), a ...
''
shōgun
, officially , was the title of the military dictators 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, though during part of the Kamakur ...
'', "How do you catch a catfish with a gourd?" It can be viewed as a piece of Zen humour, or as a
kōan
A (; , ; ko, 화두, ; vi, công án) is a story, dialogue, question, or statement which is used in Zen practice to provoke the "great doubt" and to practice or test a student's progress in Zen.
Etymology
The Japanese term is the Sino-Jap ...
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
History
Shūbun was born in the late 14th century in Ōmi Province and became a professional painter around 1403. He set ...
*
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 competitio ...
References
*
*
External links
*
Japanese painters
Rinzai Buddhists
Buddhist artists
Zenga
15th-century Japanese painters
Chinese emigrants to Japan
{{Japan-painter-stub