It might be difficult for viewers not used\nto seeing paintings of the Muromachi period (1336-1573) to understand Sesshu\u2019s rendering of \u201cWinter Landscape.\u201d The vertical\nline that runs through the center of the painting constitutes a boundary\nbetween the precipitous cliff \u2013 its bare-rock surface is depicted on the right \u2013\nand the sky. The cliff is close and hanging over you, so when you look up high\nwhere the trees should be, you won\u2019t see any because it\u2019s all hazy, and the whole\nview spreads beyond your field of vision. On the left, you see the sky spreading\nas well as the mountains. In this open space, a person with a cane who has just\ngotten off a boat is heading toward a pavilion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sesshu (1420-1506?) traveled to Ming at the\nage of 48 and studied the organization of space in landscape painting. In \u201cAutumn\nand Winter Landscapes,\u201d the artist\u2019s brushstrokes are swift, which suggests the\npaintings were made around the time when the \u201cLong Scroll of Landscapes\u201d (dated\n1486; national treasure) was finished. Horizontal lines are used to put the paintings\nin perspective. What\u2019s farther in distance is placed higher and farther behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can also observe Sesshu\u2019s unique way of\ncontrasting black and white, an idiosyncrasy no one can imitate. His brushwork is\nrefined and gives you the sense that the painter has come a long way to reach\nthis level of sophistication. Contours of receding cliffs are usually blurry, but\nin this painting, they are hard-edged. Jet black strokes are also seen at the\nwater\u2019s edge. The lines are gnarled here and there, creating a certain rhythm. Most\nlikely, with the use of a single brush, this was his way of refraining from making\nthe painting look hollow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The \u201cAutumn Landscape\u201d was once regarded as\nthe \u201cSummer Landscape,\u201d but the accepted theory has changed. I think the \u201cAutumn\nLandscape\u201d is actually a \u201cSpring Landscape.\u201d The tree branches depicted in the\nforeground \u2013 often seen in ink-wash paintings \u2013 are, in all likelihood, those\nof an ume<\/em> tree, the epitome of spring.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n The doubt sprung up with the shape of this\npainting. The canvas of an ink painting is normally vertically long so a Zen\nmonk can later make a poetic inscription in the extra space. But the aspect\nratio here is that of a fusuma<\/em> sliding\ndoor. That this painting was rendered only in black and white is also unusual. Xia\nGui (painter of Southern Song) style paintings such as this one, typically use a\nlot of colors, such as blue for water surface, red and blue for rock surface,\nand green to increase volume.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What if these paintings are originally from\na set of 12 fusuma<\/em> paintings (three fusuma<\/em> for each season), instead of a\nset of four hanging scrolls depicting the four seasons? We can suppose the two\npaintings of the \u201cAutumn and Winter Landscapes\u201d were parts of a sample made by\nSesshu to be sent to a Zen monk, who would eventually make the poetic\ninscription. Perhaps the monk was asked to make his inscription on a square\npiece of colored paper so it can later be pasted on Sesshu\u2019s actual fusuma<\/em> painting. This is how it was done\nat that time. We know for a fact that in 1487, the residence of Ouchi Masahiro,\nthen head of the Ouchi clan who ruled the Yamaguchi area (presently Yamaguchi Prefecture),\nwas renovated. This theory is being debated, but when considered this way, all questions\nregarding the \u201cAutumn Landscape,\u201d including its indistinct portrayal of the\nseason, can be answered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the other hand, the evaluation of master\npainter Sesshu, who is regarded a \u201ctrue artist,\u201d is currently under review. He\nis reputed as the consummator of Japanese ink-wash painting, but all the Chinese-style\npainters of the Muromachi period, including Sesshu, were more or less public servants.\nThey produced paintings upon requests from clients and in the style of Xia Gui,\nMa Yuan, Muqi and others, or by combining them. What was important for them was\nto be able to give a meaningful explanation of the works they were imitating,\nand as such, originality was not called for. After all, Muromachi culture was\nall about the literati sharing the profound world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sesshu, who was the disciple of Shubun, never\ndeviated from the way things were, and was the true embodiment of Muromachi\nculture. Sesshu was the consummator of Chinese-style painting in the Muromachi\nperiod and he demonstrated his individuality within that capacity. When you see\nhis painting of \u201cHuike Offering His Arm to Bodhidharma,\u201d Sesshu seems as if he\nis the one to bring about something new in portrait painting. Close attention\nshould be paid not only to his landscape paintings, but also to his other works\nof art. <\/p>\n\n\n\n (From\nThe Yomiuri Shimbun)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Remarks by Minoru Watada \/ Senior cultural properties specialist, Cultural Affairs Agency It might be difficul […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":1319,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[407],"tags":[98,99,97,84],"class_list":["post-1317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","tag-ink_painting","tag-landscape_painting","tag-sesshu_toyo","tag-tokyo_national_museum"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nOriginally fusuma paintings?<\/h6>\n\n\n\n