Art and Technique of Sumi-e Japanese Ink Painting

Explore the ancient technique of Japanese ink painting. The art of sumi-e , which means "ink picture," combines calligraphy and ink-painting to produce brush painting compositions of rare beauty. This beauty is paradoxical—ancient but modern, simple but sophisticated, bold but subdued—no doubt reflecting the art's spiritual basis in Zen Buddhism. At the same time, sumi-e painting is firmly rooted in the natural world, its various techniques serving as the painter's language for describing the wo