Sumi-e, Less is More

Kono Motonobu - The Four Accomplishments mid-16th century

We hear often that “Less is more”. Hmmm, what exactly does it mean?! Perhaps the artwork below can visually explain it–SUMI-E–or ink wash painting is typically a monochrome art, which uses only shades of black. It gives a great emphasis on virtuoso brushwork to convey the perceived “spirit” or “essence” of a subject over direct imitation.

Josetsu (c. 1405–1496) was the "Father of Japanese ink wash painting". Catching catfish with a gourd (瓢鮎図, Hyōnen-zu), 1415, Japan.

Ink wash painting flourished from the Song dynasty in China (960–1279) onwards. In Japan, the style was introduced in the 14th century, during the Muromachi period (1333–1573) through Zen Buddhist monasteries, and in particular Josetsu, a painter who immigrated from China and taught the first major early painter Tenshō Shūbun (d. c. 1450). Both he and his pupil Sesshū Tōyō (1420–1506) were monks, although Sesshū eventually left the clergy, and spent a year or so in China in 1468–69. 

Sesson Shūkei (雪村 周継), Gibbons in a Landscape, ink on Xuan paper, 1570, Japan. Collected by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

By the end of the period the style had been adopted by several professional or commercial artists, especially from the large Kanō school founded by Kanō Masanobu (1434–1530); his son Kanō Motonobu was also very important. In the Japanese way, the most promising pupils married daughters of the family, and changed their names to Kanō. The school continued to paint in the traditional Japanese yamato-e and other coloured styles as well.

Ni Zan, Enjoying the Wilderness in an Autumn Grove, medium: hanging scroll; ink on Xuan paper, 1339, China. Collected by Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Sesshū Tōyō (1420–1506), Autumn Landscape (Shūkei-sansui), ink on silk, Japan.

A Japanese innovation of the Azuchi–Momoyama period (1568–1600) was to use the monochrome style on a much larger scale in byōbu folding screens, often produced in sets so that they ran all round even large rooms. The Shōrin-zu byōbu of about 1595 is a famous example; only some 15% of the paper is painted

Hasegawa Tohaku - Pine Trees (Shōrin-zu byōbu) - left hand screen
Hasegawa Tohaku - Pine Trees (Shōrin-zu byōbu) - right hand screen
Japanese magnolia Suibokuga ink painting Sumi-e Large Floral Rice paper


An aphorism states “sumi is black and yet it is not black,” which means that black ink in a painting suggests many things including the whole spectrum of colors. A serious sumi-e artist explores and experiments with these hues and uses the sumi ink that provides the best results for their creative expression. The carbon for sumi ink comes from three sources: burned rapeseed oil, burned pine sap, and the tone of ink when thinned ranges from light black to bluish-grey. Industrial oils are used to produce inexpensive sumi that has a brown tone.

A Heron in Solitude
A Sleeping Cat
A Koi Couple
Ladybird and Bamboo

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