牧松周省筆 破墨山水図|Splashed-Ink Landscape

Bokushō Shūshō

early 16th century · Hanging scroll; ink on paper · Asian Art

This evocative painting by Bokushō is a variation on a celebrated landscape in the haboku (splashed-ink) technique by the great master Sesshū Tōyō (1420–1506), which is now in the Tokyo National Museum. The technique, in which dark ink is applied rapidly over still‑wet, light washes to create a soft, diffused effect, with neither well‑defined contour lines nor explicit details, evokes an intuitive and contemplative mindset associated with Zen Buddhist spiritual practice. The artist Bokushō, a high‑ranking Rinzai Zen monk, also achieved renown in literary circles in Kyoto and later moved to western Honshū, where he befriended the famed ink painter Sesshū. The abbreviated, mist-laden scene is also reminiscent of the work of the thirteenth-century Chinese artist Yujian, whose ink landscape paintings were much admired in Japan.

Artist

Bokushō Shūshō

Date

early 16th 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