Kakemono The Calligrapher and His Companion

A scholar with raised brush seems to be writing into thin air, while a small, laughing companion looks over his shoulder – a humorous, immediate scene full of vitality. With concise, confident lines the scholar's robe and facial expression are worked out, while the companion is given a childlike lightness through softer, rounder forms, which stands in contrast to the writer's concentrated posture.

Such depictions of eccentric scholars, who seem to write spontaneously and without a fixed surface, draw on the long tradition of Zen-influenced figure painting, in which spontaneity and inner freedom are placed above formal perfection. The light, sketch-like execution lends this hanging scroll a particular immediacy and makes it a vivid example of humorous ink painting.