Japanese Ink Art Zen

The art of japanese ink painting.

Japanese ink art zen. Ink wash painting simplified chinese. Japanese ink art particulary zen art is marked by the repeated use of common subjects. Using just simple black ink and carefully curated white space sumi e captures the timeless beauty and complexity of the natural world.

Gallery 2740 east asian buddhist art when zen buddhism was introduced to japan in the early 13th century from china it radically transformed japanese religious practice and visual culture. Rather than focusing on the study of written scripture zen buddhism stressed the mind to mind transmission of the buddha s wisdom through direct master disciple encounters. The barriers between human existence and reaching enlightenment are the primary catalyst for so many works of zen painting. Shozo sato is a renowned master of zen arts recipient of the order of the sacred treasure and the author of sumi e.

This is epitomised in the historic piece bodhidharma crossing the yangzi river on a reed by artist kano soshu 1551 1601 an elegantly simple ink illustration of buddhist monk bodhidharma known in japanese as daruma the image carries with it the mentality that you. Sumukhwa or sumi e japanese.