Ikkū - “One Emptiness” - Plum Blossom - vintage Japanese painting on shikishi
Vintage Japanese work on shikishi from the postwar Shōwa period by Ikkū, depicting a blooming plum tree.
The work is signed Ikkū and bears the artist’s red seal. The plum blossom belongs to the classic Japanese circle of seasonal subjects, associated with early spring.
Ikkū appears to have been a Japanese painter and calligrapher of the postwar Shōwa period, working under an art name. His works are uncommon, but signed and sealed shikishi by this name form a recognizable group of small-format paintings and calligraphy.
The art name Ikkū may be understood as “One Emptiness”: it combines “one” with kū, a Buddhist term for emptiness, or śūnyatā.
Ikkū’s works are characterized by restraint: the simple shikishi format, minimal decorative effect, and attention to the meaning of image, inscription, and seals. This modesty of material and form is close to the aesthetics of wabi-sabi.
The work is signed Ikkū and bears the artist’s red seal. The plum blossom belongs to the classic Japanese circle of seasonal subjects, associated with early spring.
Ikkū appears to have been a Japanese painter and calligrapher of the postwar Shōwa period, working under an art name. His works are uncommon, but signed and sealed shikishi by this name form a recognizable group of small-format paintings and calligraphy.
The art name Ikkū may be understood as “One Emptiness”: it combines “one” with kū, a Buddhist term for emptiness, or śūnyatā.
Ikkū’s works are characterized by restraint: the simple shikishi format, minimal decorative effect, and attention to the meaning of image, inscription, and seals. This modesty of material and form is close to the aesthetics of wabi-sabi.