Ch: beizonghua. The northern school of Chinese painting as opposed to the Southern school of painting *nanshūga 南宗画. A division advocated by Ming critic Dong Qichang (Jp: Tō Kishō 董其昌, 1555-1636) in order to discriminate professional painters from literati artists. The academy style painting *intaiga 院体画 associated with the Southern Song painters Ma Yuan (Jp: Ba En 馬遠, act. late 12th-early 13th century) and Xia Gui (Jp: Ka Kei 夏珪, act. 1194-1224), which was revived in the Ming dynasty by painters of the Zhe School 浙派 (Jp: Seppa). The vigorous brushwork typically seen in the ax-cut strokes *fuhekishun 斧劈皴 and the diagonal or one corner composition *henkakuno kei 辺角の景 are characteristics of the Northern school style. Hokushūga had a direct influence on the development of Japanese ink painting *suibokuga 水墨画 during the Muromachi and Momoyama periods.