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Lot Essay
Bonpo was an elite Zen monk of the first quarter of the fifteenth century. At some time between 1405 and 1409, he became abbot of the prestigious Kyoto monastery Ken’nin-ji. In 1413, he was made abbot of Nanzen-ji, the powerful Zen temple in the eastern hills of Kyoto. He was closely associated with the shogun Yoshimochi, who attended Bonpo’s inaugural ceremony at Nanzen-ji. The names of two Nanzen-ji subtemples—the Chisoku-ken and the Shorin-in—appear on two of Bonpo’s seals; he later retired to Toro-an, a subtemple he built within the grounds of Nanzen-ji. At age 72, in the spring of 1420, he was forced to leave Kyoto abruptly. He withdrew to a small temple in nearby Omi province (Shiga Prefecture) and was not heard from again. There is speculation that he ran afoul of the shogun on the political issue of ecclesiastical versus secular powers. He presumably died shortly thereafter.
Bonpo was a highly respected poet, calligrapher and painter, renowned in his own day for his orchid paintings, although his known body of works is quite small—only about thirty are recorded, and they are thought to date from late in his life, around 1400 to 1420. His persistent repetition of subject matter has been likened to a kind of spiritual discipline. There are examples of Bonpo’s orchids in the Brooklyn Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Cleveland Museum of Art, Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Freer Gallery of Art.
The Utterberg painting is anchored in one corner by a rocky formation with patches of moss, balanced by the artist’s inscription at the upper left. Several tall blades flare upward, gyrating through the shorter blades to create a sinuous and elegant composition that is perfectly balanced, like a floral arrangement. Bamboo leaves cap the composition at the upper right, and thorny brambles add texture at the lower left. Only a few tiny, fragile orchid blossoms appear. Orchids and rocks are cherished in literati lore as symbolic of the scholar’s purity of heart, loyalty, and integrity. Epidendrum is a wild variety of orchid that grows in East Asia, where it is admired for its sweet fragrance and ability to grow even in low-quality soil. For this reason, orchids are said to be like ideal gentlemen, whose scholarly pursuits stand them in good stead even when the going is rough.
Bonpo paints with swift, impatient strokes that cut across the picture surface. One long, supple blade thrusts into the semi-cursive calligraphy of his inscription to integrate the two elements of his work. Bonpo is thought to have been directly influenced by his older contemporary, the 14th-century amateur orchid painter Tesshu Tokusai (d. 1366). Tesshu traveled to China, where he is sure to have seen the work of the Yuan-dynasty orchid painter, Xuechuang Puming (mid 14th c). By the time Bonpo takes up his brush, however, the realism of the Chinese model has been abandoned and the painting is more abstract and lyrical, with a distinctly Japanese graphic, linear pattern.
Bonpo was a highly respected poet, calligrapher and painter, renowned in his own day for his orchid paintings, although his known body of works is quite small—only about thirty are recorded, and they are thought to date from late in his life, around 1400 to 1420. His persistent repetition of subject matter has been likened to a kind of spiritual discipline. There are examples of Bonpo’s orchids in the Brooklyn Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Cleveland Museum of Art, Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Freer Gallery of Art.
The Utterberg painting is anchored in one corner by a rocky formation with patches of moss, balanced by the artist’s inscription at the upper left. Several tall blades flare upward, gyrating through the shorter blades to create a sinuous and elegant composition that is perfectly balanced, like a floral arrangement. Bamboo leaves cap the composition at the upper right, and thorny brambles add texture at the lower left. Only a few tiny, fragile orchid blossoms appear. Orchids and rocks are cherished in literati lore as symbolic of the scholar’s purity of heart, loyalty, and integrity. Epidendrum is a wild variety of orchid that grows in East Asia, where it is admired for its sweet fragrance and ability to grow even in low-quality soil. For this reason, orchids are said to be like ideal gentlemen, whose scholarly pursuits stand them in good stead even when the going is rough.
Bonpo paints with swift, impatient strokes that cut across the picture surface. One long, supple blade thrusts into the semi-cursive calligraphy of his inscription to integrate the two elements of his work. Bonpo is thought to have been directly influenced by his older contemporary, the 14th-century amateur orchid painter Tesshu Tokusai (d. 1366). Tesshu traveled to China, where he is sure to have seen the work of the Yuan-dynasty orchid painter, Xuechuang Puming (mid 14th c). By the time Bonpo takes up his brush, however, the realism of the Chinese model has been abandoned and the painting is more abstract and lyrical, with a distinctly Japanese graphic, linear pattern.