Ikkū - “One Emptiness” - Water Lilies and Verse - double sided vintage Japanese painting on shikishi
Double sided vintage Japanese work on shikishi from the postwar Shōwa period by Ikkū, with water lilies on the front and a calligraphic poetic inscription on the reverse.
The front bears the artist’s red seal. The reverse includes a calligraphic inscription, the signature Ikkū, and red artist seals.
The inscription on the reverse may be translated as: “Fine rain sprinkles the flowers with a thousand drops of tears; pale mist encloses the bamboo in a single mass of sorrow.”
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 front bears the artist’s red seal. The reverse includes a calligraphic inscription, the signature Ikkū, and red artist seals.
The inscription on the reverse may be translated as: “Fine rain sprinkles the flowers with a thousand drops of tears; pale mist encloses the bamboo in a single mass of sorrow.”
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.