Splashed-Ink Landscape

Bokushō Shūshō

An item at Metropolitan Museum of 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.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art