Artwork Page for Bamboo and Plum

Details / Information for Bamboo and Plum

Bamboo and Plum

1500s

Sesson Shūkei

(Japanese, active 1504-c. 1589)
Culture
Japan, Muromachi period (1392–1573)
Medium
hanging scroll; ink on paper
Measurements
Mounted: 198.1 x 60.4 cm (78 x 23 3/4 in.)
Credit Line
Gift from the Collection of George Gund III 2015.503
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
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Description

This painting of a white plum (or prunus) and bamboo was once part of a triptych. A central image of the demon-queller Zhong Kui was flanked by this painting and one of a red plum and bamboo. The paintings would have been suitable to hang after the turn of the new year, when Zhong Kui would drive out evil demons, and the year’s first flowers were in bloom. Sesson hailed from what is now Ibaraki prefecture in northern Honshu. A Zen monk, he spent much of his career in the Kanto region, and developed a distinctive style uninhibited by formal training in the Kano atelier.
A vertical hanging scroll in black ink on tan paper depicts a gnarled plum tree and slender bamboo stalks. A thick trunk rises from the lower left, curving upward with branches scattered with delicate white blossoms. Pointed bamboo leaves cluster near the bottom and hang from the top. In the upper left, two red square seals and black calligraphy marks sit against the muted background.

Bamboo and Plum

1500s

Sesson Shūkei

(Japanese, active 1504-c. 1589)
Japan, Muromachi period (1392–1573)

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