Muromachi: Zen, ink and the tea ceremony
The ink painting of the Zen monasteries, rock gardens and the tea ceremony shaped an aesthetic of simplicity, silence and emptiness.
The Ashikaga shoguns settled in the Muromachi district of Kyoto and became great patrons of Zen Buddhism and Chinese art. The Golden Pavilion and the Silver Pavilion were built as the shoguns’ retreats.
The monk-painter Sesshū travelled to China and developed his own ink painting, suibokuga, with powerful brushstrokes and dramatic landscapes. The rock gardens of the Zen monasteries, such as Ryōan-ji, created landscapes from raked gravel and stones.
The tea ceremony took shape with Murata Jukō and later Sen no Rikyū, and Nō theatre was developed by Zeami. Aesthetic ideals such as wabi – quiet simplicity – and yūgen – hidden, profound beauty – were formulated.
- Sesshū: from the monastery to China and back
- The Kanō and Tosa schools
- Swords in time of war
- From Chinese treasure bowls to earthenware jars
- Nō masks and dry gardens
- The Golden Pavilion and the Silver Pavilion
- Close reading: Catching a Catfish with a Gourd
- Shūbun and the shogun’s artistic advisers
- Between China, Korea and Ryukyu
- The image of Zen in later times and new research
- Sesshū Tōyō
- Motonobu (1476)
- Kanō Masanobu
- Shūbun
- Tosa Mitsunobu