# Bamboo and Plum

- By: Sesson Shūkei (Japanese, active 1504-c. 1589)
- Date: 1500s
- Medium: hanging scroll; ink on paper
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: Mounted: 198.1 x 60.4 cm (78 x 23 3/4 in.)
- Culture: Japan, Muromachi period (1392–1573)
- Credit line: Gift from the Collection of George Gund III
- Museum: [Cleveland Museum of Art](https://clevelandart.org/art/2015.503)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2015.503/2015.503_web.jpg
- Who can see it: Little Ones profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

This painting of a white plum (or prunus) and bamboo was once part of a triptych. A central image of the demon-queller Zhong Kui was flanked by this painting and one of a red plum and bamboo. The paintings would have been suitable to hang after the turn of the new year, when Zhong Kui would drive out evil demons, and the year’s first flowers were in bloom. Sesson hailed from what is now Ibaraki prefecture in northern Honshu. A Zen monk, he spent much of his career in the Kanto region, and developed a distinctive style uninhibited by formal training in the Kano atelier.