15th Century Japanese Zen Buddhist Monochrome Ink Landscape Painters: S/D

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I was talking to the great Tim H about art last night, and I cited this as the one art area where I might well know more than anyone else here, and the kind of rare esoteric speciality that might find no other interested parties on ILE (one of the things I love here is that you can find someone to talk interestingly about most anything).

So prove me wrong, and make me try to think of something else where I'm the expert. I'll start by saying search Sesshu Toyo, one of my half dozen favourite painters ever, and incidentally search the earlier (esp 12th-13th C) Chinese painters on whom he largely modelled his work (Xia Gui is my favourite in that area). Feel free to extend into the 14th and 16th centuries, of course.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 12 January 2003 22:01 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.kyohaku.go.jp/grj/hp1-01.jpg

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Sunday, 12 January 2003 22:21 (twenty-two years ago)

thanks martin

first eddie hinton now sesshu toyo!

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Sunday, 12 January 2003 22:22 (twenty-two years ago)

I like that Henri Rousseauesque stylization of the water on this bit:http://www.kyohaku.go.jp/meihin/kaiga/suiboku/mht5001e.htm

― Gordon (Gordon), Sunday, 12 January 2003 22:49 (twenty-two years ago)

That first image above has been my desktop wallpaper at work for a while now (not the first Sesshu in that position either).

Kano and his successors kind of comprise a slightly separate strand - much more lavish, far less ascetic, designed more for aristocratic tastes than the monastic Sesshu's work. I like him a lot, but he doesn't have the extraordinary almost abrasive instant force that Sesshu does, for me.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 12 January 2003 23:11 (twenty-two years ago)

By the way, I don't understand the link with Hinton. Is this twice I've cited obscure people you like, or twice I've turned you on to someone new you really like? (I presume it's not that you think they are really similar!) Either way, I'm pleased you're pleased.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 12 January 2003 23:20 (twenty-two years ago)

twice you've mentioned obscure people that I knew about peripherally but was kind of curious to learn more about, and twice that i've enjoyed following up on your suggestions

haven't taken the lone wolf & cub plunge yet though

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Sunday, 12 January 2003 23:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Lone Wolf & Cub has just concluded. 28 volumes, about 8,500 pages. A big commitment - I plan to reread the whole lot very soon.

I'll mention some more favourites of this artistic period and style: Shubun was Sesshu's teacher in Japan, Shokei Tenyu (another Shubun follower), Bunsei (same style), Gakuo Zokyu, Sesshu's own pupil Soen, Toshun, Keishoki and my second fave from here, Sesson Shukei. These are from the jagged Northern school, which is most to my taste, and easiest to find out about, in my experience. Best of the Southern school (mistier, maybe more painterly and less illustrative to western eyes) might be Soami.

And slightly aside from the tight definition in the title, but still Zen ink painters of that period: Kao was a key predecessor of most that I mentioned above, and Gyokuen Bompo made lots of great orchid paintings, in particular. Actually, a lot of the artistic traditions created in this period are still thriving today - I've mentioned one or two here before.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 12 January 2003 23:50 (twenty-two years ago)

It's too Chinese-y for me!

― Mary (Mary), Monday, 13 January 2003 03:53 (twenty-two years ago)

you sound like N.

― RJG (RJG), Monday, 13 January 2003 03:59 (twenty-two years ago)

i:ve been to the place pictured in the painting (amano hashidate) and
let me tell you it has changed!

― mu, Monday, 13 January 2003 06:25 (twenty-two years ago)

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