Ink Plum

Heisen (Byōsen) Myōshitsu

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A branch of plum still covered with snow but beginning to blossom, and a plum branch in full bloom are depicted in this pair of hanging scrolls, each of which bears a single crimson seal of the artist along the lower right-hand border. Plum blossoms were symbolic of the arrival of spring in both China and Japan, and were a frequent subject in Japanese seasonal poetry, but following the arrival of Chinese ink paintings of plums in Japan, they became a popular subject for Zen ink painters. In the left-hand painting, blank space surrounded by wash represents snow and the newly emerging blossoms; the right-hand scroll features more sweeping brush strokes of dark ink. Little is known about Heisen Myōshitsu, a painter mentioned in the Koga Biko (a biographical “dictionary” of artists published around 1850), save that he was a Zen monk. Like other Zen ink painters of his era, he was clearly influenced by Chinese ink painters of the Song (960–1279) and Yuan (1260–1368) dynasties.

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