Landscape of Summer and Autumn, from a triptych of Bodhidharma and Landscapes of the Four Seasons

At the center of this triptych of hanging scrolls is a portrait of Bodhidharma, known as Daruma in Japan, the Indian patriarch of Zen Buddhism credited with transmitting Zen from India to China in ancient times. At right and left are images of China—dramatic mountainscapes with Buddhist temples and gnarled old pine trees perched on the peaks, along with motifs representing all four seasons. The bold contour lines, solid shape of the mountains, and shallow representation of space are characteristic of Unkoku Tōeki, whose style was informed by the paintings of the revered medieval painter Sesshū Tōyō (1420–1520).