context: painting > Zen painting > Artists > Sesshu

Sesshu: Two more landscapes

Ama-no-Hashidate

Ama-no-Hashidate (which means the 'Bridge of Heaven'), pictured here, is a rare Japanese landscape, and another largeish work that is said to have been painted very quickly. It's explicitly based on a real location, and is topographically accurate - indeed there is labelling in various places (I'm not sure how well you can see that here), so the impression is of a mapping intent. I don't know whether the high angle is possible, in reality.

The work known as the long scroll is an astounding item, and, I think, one of the world's most remarkable works of art. It's just 16" high, but 60' wide - designed to be fed through the hands, seen a couple of feet at a time, but these days displayed flat. It's a journey through a range of landscapes and through a year. There are tiny formulaic houses, and utterly unreal yet totally imposing rocks, cliffs and mountains. It's a work of complex and rich rhythms, a work that controls your eye movements as you move long it, and it offers delights everywhere.

backwards: Landscapes

forwards: His haboku