Artworks

Plum Tree and Pine Tree, Zenkoan, Kenninji

Artwork · Kaihō Yūshō · c. 1599 · fusuma-e · Kennin-ji Temple

From a series of twelve fusuma by Kaihō Yūshō (1533–1615) for the Zenkoan, a subtemple of Kennin-ji Temple. Yūshō, a samurai’s son who was saved by being a ward of Tōfukuji when his father and brothers fell in 1573, left the temple at forty-one to become a painter, trained by a Kanō master. Quick calligraphic strokes on white: an ancient, rough-barked plum with thin, sword-like branches and new blossoms; an indistinct pine of broad, dry strokes sheltering two black mynah birds — each tree isolated, to reaffirm the Zen ideal of unity between man and nature. 1 Mason 2005, pp. 263–265, figs. 303–304. ↩ Literatur Mason 2005: Penelope E. Mason, History of Japanese Art, 2nd, Pearson Education LTD. 2005.