Zenga

also: Zen painting · Zen-ga · 禅画

tradition Edo-Meiji periods (c. 1600-1912) Japan East Asia

Zenga (zen-ga, 'Zen picture') is the sumi-e ink painting and calligraphy of Japanese Zen masters, above all in the Edo and Meiji periods. Works are direct and economical: a few brushstrokes in monochrome ink, often joined by a roughly brushed Zen saying, sometimes in kana, so that image and inscription teach together. Subjects recur - Daruma (Bodhidharma), the sages Kanzan and Jittoku, the laughing Hotei, the ensō circle, a staff, or calligraphy alone - and they are frequently rendered as comical caricatures, playful and spontaneous. In the Edo period zenga moved out of the monastery to serve lay teaching as one form of Zen outreach. The name itself is postwar, popularized by the scholar Kurt Brasch in the 1950s-60s; it is often contrasted with nanga, literati painting.

Zen painting "square-triangle-circle"
Zen painting "square-triangle-circle"Public domain (credit: Sengai) · source

Defining characteristics

  • Monochrome ink (sumi) with direct, simple, expressive brushwork
  • Image and calligraphic inscription combined in one sheet, the text a Zen teaching
  • Recurring figures - Daruma, Kanzan and Jittoku, Hotei - often as comical caricatures
  • Simple motifs: the ensō circle, a staff, or pure calligraphy without painting
  • Playful, spontaneous, deliberately rough execution, with short inscriptions often in kana

Key figures

  • Hakuin Ekaku (1686-1769) — Rinzai Zen master who took up painting at nearly sixty and made zenga 'visual sermons' for laypeople
  • Sengai Gibon (1750-1837) — Abbot of Shōfuku-ji, known for roughly brushed, comic ink paintings such as Circle, Triangle, Square

Example works

  • Circle, Triangle, Square (also known as The Universe) — Sengai Gibon (early 19th century)
  • Death poem (jisei) brushed over the character for 'death' — Hakuin Ekaku (1769)
  • Bodhidharma (Daruma) — Hakuin Ekaku (mid-18th century)

Sources

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