Ikkū - “One Emptiness” - Sake Gourd with Poetic Inscription - vintage Japanese painting on shikishi
Vintage Japanese work on shikishi from the postwar Shōwa period by Ikkū, depicting a gourd-shaped sake vessel with a short poetic inscription.
The work is signed Ikkū and bears red artist seals. The inscription may be translated as: “Three cups drunk alone; one pillow in peaceful sleep.”
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 red artist seals. The inscription may be translated as: “Three cups drunk alone; one pillow in peaceful sleep.”
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.