“Bamboo in Ink”

Sengai Gibon

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Artist Name: Sengai Gibon
Title: “Bamboo in Ink”
Dimensions: painting：88.5×29.3㎝
full length：176.4×35.4㎝
Medium: ink on paper
Description: This Bamboo in Ink is rendered solely in ink, a subject at which Sengai excelled. With masterful brushwork, he vividly captures the bending of the stalks and leaves in the wind, conveying their graceful, swaying movement.

Since ancient times, bamboo—remaining ever green even amid winter winds and snow—has been likened to the virtuous gentleman. For this reason, literati painters frequently chose it as a favored subject. Sengai, too, delighted in depicting bamboo.

Sengai Gibon (1750-1837) was a Japanese monk of the Rinzai school in Edo period.

He was born in Gifu, and then became a monk at 11 years old.
After traveling in Japan, he was being an abbot for 23 years. He passed away at 88 years old.
His humorous artworks are based on Zen.