gnarled branches with dense flower blossoms made of spots of ink and ink wash

Plum Drawn from the Mind, first half 19th century

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The practice of painting blossoming plum branches in monochrome ink seems to have emerged in tenth-century China and became popular among the Japanese literati of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Delicate flowers budding from a wizened plum tree during the winter carry associations of longevity, renewal, and purity. The inscription, shai, meaning ‘drawn from the mind,’ is the opposite of shasei, or ‘sketched from life;’ indeed, this is a particularly free-spirited and imaginative interpretation of this subject. A variety of tones of ink applied in impressionistic splotches with a wet brush convey the vital splendor of a plum tree breaking into a profusion of blossoms at the cusp of spring.

Baichi was a priest of the Pure Land or Jōdo school of Buddhism, known for his poetry, calligraphy, and paintings of landscapes and flora.

Details
Title
Plum Drawn from the Mind
Artist Life
1785 - 1859
Role
Artist
Accession Number
2014.109.2
Provenance
(Watanabe Japanese Fine Arts)
Curator Approved

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gnarled branches with dense flower blossoms made of spots of ink and ink wash