赤脚子筆　牧牛図|Oxherding

Sekkyakushi

first half of the 15th century · Hanging scroll; ink on paper · Asian Art

This painting depicting a herdboy escorting an ox down a hillside path originally may have been one of ten hanging scrolls illustrating the Ten Verses on Oxherding, a Zen parable composed in eleventh-century China that became popular in Japan. If so, it likely represents the fifth verse, “Herding the Ox,” in which the herdboy has located his runaway ox and sets off on his way home. Another possibility is that it was inspired by a more secular Chinese painting of an ox and herdboy in which the image was meant to evoke the cyclical rhythms of the seasons. Although the biography of the painter Sekkyakushi remains unclear, he is believed to have been one among several followers of the early Zen monk-artist Kichizan Minchō (1352–1431), active in the painting atelier of Tōfukuji, a large Zen monastery in Kyoto.

Artist

Sekkyakushi

Date

first half of the 15th century

Medium

Hanging scroll; ink on paper

Culture

Japan

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Mary Griggs Burke Collection, Gift of the Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, 2015