Japanese Painting: Calligraphy and Image

September 13, 2007 – February 19, 2008

Kameda Bōsai

Japan, 1752-1826

Confucian Poem

Hanging scroll; ink on satin

Mount: 67 1/8 x 18 1/2 in. (170.5 x 47.0 cm)

LACMA, Gift of Julia and Leo Krashen

Photo © 2007 Museum Associates/LACMA

In traditional Chinese aesthetics scholars considered poetry to be the highest form of communication, followed by calligraphy, which revealed the character of the writer, then by painting, a pictorial branch of calligraphy also meant to elucidate poetic imagery and reveal the painter’s individual nature.

This group of paintings and calligraphies features three main groups of Japanese artists for whom calligraphy became a central means of expression: Zen and other Buddhist monks, literati, who modeled themselves after the educated Chinese elite, and aristocrats of the imperial line, who bore the responsibility for maintaining authentic Japanese artistic principles.