Bamboo and Plum
Medium
hanging scroll; ink on paper
Dimensions
painting: 105 × 48.2 cm · mounted: 198.1 × 60.4 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
Japanese Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift from the Collection of George Gund III
Accession Number
2015.503
Tags
About this artwork
This painting of a white plum (or prunus) and bamboo was once part of a triptych. A central image of the demon-queller Zhong Kui was flanked by this painting and one of a red plum and bamboo. The paintings would have been suitable to hang after the turn of the new year, when Zhong Kui would drive out evil demons, and the year’s first flowers were in bloom. Sesson hailed from what is now Ibaraki prefecture in northern Honshu. A Zen monk, he spent much of his career in the Kanto region, and develo...