shosai-zu 書斎図

Also shosaijiku 書斎軸 or saijiku 斉軸. Associated with *shigajiku 詩画軸. Landscape paintings with inscriptions of verse. The verses expound the ideal life-style of a Zen monk, removed from the world and living simply in a hermitage, fulfilled by his studies. The places depicted were not real places, but rather the imagined, ideal landscapes and hermitages of China which Japanese monks envisioned from their studies of Chinese poetry and literature. Shosai-zu developed around the end of the Kamakura period and were popular throughout the Muromachi period. A typical example is the hanging scroll Saimon shingetsu-zu 柴門新月図 (Full Moon and Brushwood Gate) by Minchō 明兆 (1352-1431) at Nanzenji Konchiin 南禅寺金地院 in Kyoto.