Josetsu

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Josetsu (如拙) (1405 – 1423) was one of the first suiboku style Zen Japanese painters in the Muromachi Period (15th century). He was probably also a teacher of Shubun at the Shokoku-ji monastery in Kyoto. A Chinese immigrant, he was naturalised in 1370 and is known as 'the father of Japanese ink painting'. The best known of his paintings belongs to Taizo-in, a subtemple of Myoshinji in Kyoto, which is entitled 'Catching a Catfish with a Gourd' (c.1413). It shows a comical-looking man fishing against a background of winding river and bamboo grove. It is thought to have been inspired by a riddle set by the Ashikaga shogun, 'How do you catch a catfish with a gourd?'. It can be viewed as a piece of Zen humour, or as a koan in visual form designed to provoke the viewer into new ways of 'seeing'.