KASUMI
BUNSHO (1905-1998)
Flower (Hana) Calligraphy
About Zen Art
Japanese Zen paintings are a wholly unique art form. Often used as teaching tools and intended as spiritual inspiration, they are a pure expression of the artist’s spiritual awareness.
At a time rife with concern over the ethics of removing an artwork from its country of origin, it is heartening to realize that Japanese Zen art has always been meant to travel and to touch people far and wide.
Zen paintings are made by monks and nuns following the path of Zen Buddhism in Japan. An important component of Zen art is that the character and spiritual force of the devotee is transmitted into the painting by the concentration of the artist at the time the work was brushed. Many of the most compelling works have been painted by persons of advanced age who have spent a lifetime in disciplined Buddhist practice. Their paintings resonate with the strength of their understanding and experience, offering generations of viewers works with insightful immediacy.
On the surface, Japanese Zen paintings appear simple, direct and sometimes amusing, but in looking deeper one realizes that these are also paintings of great power. Like the Zen philosophy they arise from, these paintings embrace paradox on many levels. They are a very focused, pure and intense form of religious art.