Sesshu Toyo Winter Landscape

Sesshu Toyo Winter Landscape, c. 1470

Sesshu Toyu, Winter Lanscape detail, c 1470

Sesshu Toyo was a Japanese Zen monk who is generally regarded as Japan's greatest painter. Heavily influenced by the Song and Yuan dynastic art, Sesshu Toyo uses their same techniques of austerity and simplicity to create his landscapes. (1) Curiously, many of the zen artists were not only inspired by artists of the southern Song Dynasty, but they were also painting landscapes of China despite having never been there. Sesshu Toyo, on the other hand, traveled to China in 1467 where he visited many buddhist monasteries, but upon returning to a war torn Japan he traveled the countryside making his own sketches of the landscape. (2)

Sesshu Toyo mastered the art of sumi-e painting or Chinese ink painting. These paintings are done quickly and economically with expressive brushstrokes. In the images above, Sesshu Toyo uses high contrast in his grey tones to achieve his purpose. He not only utilizes the blank canvas to highlight the snow, but he also takes advantage of using heavy black lines to create a sense of drama. His sharp choppy lines are significant in that they are not what you would expect from a landscape. These lines create the expressive energy within the painting. You feel the iciness through his use of harsh jagged brushstrokes slashing through the canvas in opposition to each other. This is not a pleasant winter wonderland but a harsh and frozen composition of the elements. Finally, there is a vertical slash that runs asymmetrically through the painting guiding our eyes through the turmoil. (3) 

Sesshu Toyo used the ideology of his religion in the creation of his paintings. As we have seen from other Asian artists there is a strong connection with the natural world. The contemplation of nature and how we interpret or express it is something that these monks spent a lot of time pondering. They were encouraged to wander the countryside for this very reason. Sesshu Toyo was an expert at communicating the deeper experience of nature. (3) 

What makes an artwork masterful? This is a question that is very open ended and objective, but I do believe that one of the criteria would be that it makes you feel something. In my opinion, this piece meets that criteria tenfold. When I look at this painting I feel more than just the cold. Something about this piece makes me feel the crushing weight of infinity alongside my own insignificance. Sesshu Toyo's sumi-e paintings are a treasure.

    Notes

    1. Dr. Sonia Coman, "A brief history of the arts of Japan: the Kamakura to Azuchi-Momoyama periods, Smarthistory, December 2, 2019, accessed October 22, 2020, https://smarthistory.org/japan-kamakura-azuchi-momoyama/

    2. Zen Mesterek Zen Masters, Terebess, accessed October 22, 2020, https://terebess.hu/zen/mesterek/Sesshu.html.

    3. Dr. Asa Simon Mittman, "Nature:spotlight -- Sesshu Toyo's Winter Landscape," Smarthistory, August 3, 2019, accessed October 23, 2020, https://smarthistory.org/theme-nature/.