{{Short description|Zen Buddhist art}} {{Italic title|reason=:Category:Japanese words and phrases}} {{hatnote|For the Italian goalkeeper, see Walter Zenga. For the Japanese league of students, see Zengakuren.}} [[File:Sengai 3.jpg|thumb|{{Nihongo|||Marusankakushikaku}}, a famous ''zenga'' by Sengai]]
'''''Zenga''''' {{Nihongo||禅画||"zen picture"}} is a subset of Zen painting that encompasses the sumi-e painting and calligraphy of Japanese Zen Masters during the Edo period<ref>Addiss, Stephen (1976). ´´Zenga and Nanga´´. New Orleans: New Orleans Museum of Art. p. 37.</ref> and Meiji period.<ref>Seo, Audrey Yoshiko; Addiss Stephen (2000). ´´The Art of Twentieth Century Zen´´. Boston: Shambhala Publications. p. 3.</ref> It is characterized by direct, simple, and expressive brush work, usually in monochrome. Zenga paintings featured traditional Buddhist figures such as Daruma, Kanzan and Jittoko, and Hotei, often depicted in comical caricatures. Zen sayings, also brushed in rough calligraphy, accompanied the paintings. Simple motifs such as the Ensō, the Zen Masters staff or calligraphy without painting were also popular themes in Zenga.<ref>Stevens, John (1990). ´´ZENGA Brushstrokes of Enlightenment´´. New Orleans: New Orleans Museum of Art.</ref>
The term "Zenga" (the Japanese pronunciation of “Zen painting”) was introduced by Japanese-born Swiss scholar Kurt Brasch's books ''Hakuin and Zenga'' (1957) and ''Zenga'' (1962), as well as the traveling Zenga exhibition he organized in Europe from 1959 to 1960. These postwar Zenga exhibitions were particularly influential.<ref name="Lippit">{{cite web|last = Lippit|first = Yukio |title = Zenga: A Brief History|url = https://emuseum.mfah.org/catalogues/gitter-yelen-collection/menu/zenga-a-brief-history|website = Museum of Fine Arts, Houston|access-date = August 9, 2025 }}</ref> Brasch's use of the term "Zenga," however, prompted criticism from some Japanese scholars including Takeuchi Naoji, who argued that it narrowly categorized the art.<ref name="aviman" />
Zenga is sometimes contrasted with "nanga," or "literati painting," made by scholars.<ref name="neworleans">{{cite book |last1=Kobayashi |first1=Tadashi |last2=Rotondo-McCord |first2=Lisa E. |title=An Enduring Vision: 17th-20th-century Japanese Painting from the Gitter-Yelen Collection |date=2002 |publisher=New Orleans Museum of Art |isbn=9780894940873 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UtbqAAAAMAAJ |access-date=8 March 2023}}</ref>
== Style == In many instances, both calligraphy and image will be in the same piece. The calligraphy denotes a poem, or saying, that teaches some element of the true path of Zen. These inscriptions are usually short, often written in kana.<ref name="fossils">{{cite book |last1=Bruschke-Johnson |first1=Lee |title=Dismissed as Elegant Fossils: Konoe Nobutada and the Role of Aristocrats in Early Modern Japan |date=22 November 2021 |publisher=Brill |isbn=9789004487604 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fhlREAAAQBAJ |access-date=8 March 2023}}</ref> The brush painting is characteristically simple, bold and abstract, and the style often playful and spontaneous.
==Zen painting during the Edo period== The Edo period saw a new popularization of Zen.<ref>{{cite book |last= Sawada |first= Janine Anderson|title= Confucian Values and Popular Zen|date= 1993|publisher= University of Hawaii|location= Honolulu|isbn= 978-0-8248-1414-4| mode = cs1|pages=23–26}}</ref> During the Edo period Zenga was not confined to the spiritual and educational discipline within the monastic Zen community but became one of several forms of Zen Buddhist outreach into the lay community. With the ushering in of the Tokugawa shogunate, “Religion came to penetrate the lives of the general populace, not just as a primitive faith, but also as a system of beliefs, that had undergone considerable intellectual refinement while sustained by the teachings and rituals of Buddhism and Shinto.<ref>{{cite book |last= Bitō |first= Masahide|chapter = Thought and Religion 1550-1700| editor-last1 = John Whitney Hall|title= The Cambridge History of Japan|volume = 4, Early Modern Japan|date= 1991|publisher= Cambridge University Press|location= Cambridge|mode = cs1|page=378}}</ref>
==Practitioners== ===Sengai Gibon=== [[File:Sengai Gibon - Kanzan and Jittoku.jpg|thumb|Sengai Gibon, ''Kanzan and Jittoku'', Jittoku, with the broom, is deconstructed, by quick direct brushwork, to just arms, face and broom.]] Sengai Gibon (1750-1837) was another notable Zenga monk/artist. He was the abbot of the Shōfuku-ji temple in Hakata, Japan, retiring in 1811. Like Hakuin, most of his ink painting was done in the later years of his life. Sengai is known for his roughly-brushed, comical style of painting.<ref name="aviman">{{cite book |last1=Aviman |first1=Galit |title=Zen Paintings in Edo Japan (1600-1868): Playfulness and Freedom in the Artwork of Hakuin Ekaku and Sengai Gibon |date=5 July 2017 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=9781351536110 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JTkrDwAAQBAJ |access-date=8 March 2023}}</ref>
===Hakuin Ekaku=== Hakuin Ekaku, (1685-1768) was a Zen Master of the Rinzai sect and abbot of the Shōin-ji temple in Hara, Japan. Hakuin is considered one of the foremost artists in the Zenga oeuvre.<ref>Addiss (1976), p. 11.</ref> He took up brush painting when in his 60's and produced thousands of works up to the end of his life.<ref name="Lippit"/>
==Gallery== {{Gallery | title = The Zenga Enso |width=130 |height=100 |noborder=yes | File:GibonSengai2a19231d492d5c2d2d1d13e0e68b6f2a.jpg|Sengai Gibon (1750-1837) | File:The Character for "Heart-Mind" as an Ensō LACMA M.84.211.1 (1 of 2).jpg|The Character for Heart-Mind as an Enso - Daidō Bunka (Japan, 1680-1752) | File:Hakuin Ekaku - Hotei in a Boat - 2006.131.1a-b - Yale University Art Gallery.jpg|Hakuin Ekaku (1685-1768), ''Hotei in a Boat'', Hakuin brushes the famous bag of Hotei as a modified enso in grey wash. The boat is represented as a back and forth, one-stroke brush. | File:Torei-Enso.jpg|Torei Enji (1721-1792) | File:Bankeitumblr lm43mrAJZc1qzgealo1 1280Sakyamuni&Maitreya.jpg|Bankei Yōtaku (盤珪永琢; 1622-1693) }} {{Gallery | title = The Zenga Daruma |width=130 |height=100 |noborder=yes | File:'Daruma' by Shunso Shoshu, Edo period, Cincinnati Art Museum.JPG|Shunsō Shōshu (1752-1835) | File:Daruma, Hakuin Ekaku - Indianapolis Museum of Art - DSC00771.JPG|Hakuin Ekaku (白隠 慧鶴, 1685-1768) | File:Meditating Daruma LACMA M.2006.207.jpg|Tōrei Enji (Japan, 1721-1792 | File:Painting of Daruma by Setsuo.jpg|Setsuo 19th century | File:Daruma by Fūgai Ekun.jpg|Fūgai Ekun (1568-1650) }} {{clear}}
==See also== *Otsu-e *Haiga *Nanga *Chinese ink and brush painting *Chan Buddhism *Japanese calligraphy **''Hitsuzendō'' **''Bokuseki''
==References== {{reflist}}
Category:Zenga Category:Chadō Category:Zen Category:Schools of Japanese art Category:Zen art and culture