Landscape by Sesshū

[1][2] Executed in the shin (真) or carefully delineated (as opposed to sō (草) or hatsuboku 'splashed ink') style,[3][4][5] the landscape is thought to be one of the artist's final works.

[8] The contrast between the dilute ink of the sea and sky and the more concentrated rocks and vegetation, and the expressive use of the background tone of the paper, helps give the painting its "impression of extreme intensity".

[9][11] 嶮崖径折繞羊腸   Mountain precipice, the winding path twists along,白髪蒼頭歩似徉   a grey-haired man, his servant wandering on foot,旧日韋村枯竹短   from distant times tanned-leather village, withered bamboo stumps,前朝簫寺老松長   close at hand flute temple, towering old pines,東漂西泊舟千里   to the east afloat, west at anchor, boats to journey a thousand li,北郭南涯夢一場   northern districts, southern shores united in a dream.我亦相従欲帰去   I too would follow on this journey,青山聳処是家郷   where blue mountains rise up, my family village.

牧松周省書          by Bokushō Shūshō詩画尋常欲遣情   Poetry and painting inspire pleasant feelings,人間何地卜長生   but where do men live for long?層巒畳嶂剣鋩矗   In the mountain range peaks jut out like daggers,極浦廻塘屏障横   far away a curving bay separated off,径路岩隈蟠繚繞   a narrow path winds between rocks,楼台樹蔭聳崢嶸   towers and trees soar up high.牧松遣韻雪舟逝   Bokushō has left his poem, Sesshū too has passed away,天末残涯春夢驚   their loss disturbs the landscape and my dreams.

永正丁印上巳前一日          Eishō 4, third month, second day     大明皇華前南褝 了庵八十三載書于雲谷寓舎          by Ryōan, imperial envoy to the Ming, formerly of Nanzen-ji, aged 83, at the Unkoku-anThe landscape was known in the seventeenth century, when it was copied by Kanō Tan'yū.