Plum Blossoms
Plum blossoms, symbolic of the arrival of spring, were a favored subject among scholar-gentleman painters in China, but when Chinese ink paintings of plums arrived in Japan their imagery became widespread within Zen circles. This composition of a gnarled plum tree framed by a circle of ink wash may reflect the use of the circle in Zen painting and calligraphy as a visual representation of words from the text of the Heart Sutra, “form is void and void is form,” and as a symbol of enlightenment.
Motsurin, a Zen artist-monk, might also have chosen plum blossoms because they were beloved of his mentor Ikkyū Sōjun (1394–1481), an abbot of Daitokuji temple in Kyoto known for his poetry, calligraphy, and flagrantly unorthodox behavior. Motsurin’s inscribed text claims that even elegant peonies and sweet jasmine cannot match the plum as a representation of the spring season.
Motsurin, a Zen artist-monk, might also have chosen plum blossoms because they were beloved of his mentor Ikkyū Sōjun (1394–1481), an abbot of Daitokuji temple in Kyoto known for his poetry, calligraphy, and flagrantly unorthodox behavior. Motsurin’s inscribed text claims that even elegant peonies and sweet jasmine cannot match the plum as a representation of the spring season.
Artwork Details
- 没倫紹等 (墨斎) 筆 梅図
- Title: Plum Blossoms
- Artist: Motsurin Jōtō (Bokusai) (Japanese, died 1492)
- Period: Muromachi period (1392–1573)
- Date: 15th century
- Culture: Japan
- Medium: Hanging scroll; ink on paper
- Dimensions: Image: 10 3/4 × 16 3/4 in. (27.3 × 42.5 cm)
Overall with mounting: 43 1/8 × 20 1/8 in. (109.5 × 51.1 cm)
Overall with knobs: W. 22 in. (55.9 cm) - Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Mary Griggs Burke Collection, Gift of the Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, 2015
- Object Number: 2015.300.62
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
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