Ichijoji

  Fast Bull - a beautifully painted work by an unknown painter from the Kamakura period - originally a hand scroll, 10 Fast Bulls, it was re...

Musashi's Squirrel and Grapes (cut off slightly on the right) The bushi were a cultured lot – some of them, anyway – and Japan...

I remember being told once - by an art teacher, speaking in the way that cultural pedants often do, that Ito jakuchu ...

Not by Musashi, but by a contemporay; Kano Sansetsu (1589-1651) indulges  his humorous side with this monkey. I have written a littl...

A very quick post wishing all of a you a Happy New Year, and a thank-you for your support and kind comments. I hope that you will contin...

I always say, if anyone asks me, that in order to appreciate art, you should try and see work in the flesh. It took me quite a while to co...

This is the poster from the current exhibition at the Kyoto Sen-Oku Hakuko-kan, the home of the Sumitomo Collection in Kyoto (They have...

A close-up of the most famous portrait of Musashi. Even here there's much you don't see. (Original photo here .) Just last w...

Recently, I found this picture of Musashi's monkey, which has finally allowed me to understand what the piece looked like. It is actua...

Not by Musashi, but Mu Qi, a Chinese painter of the Song Dynasty.  I have a particular fondness for gibbons, so I was very pleased to be...