Moon amid Clouds 1800 - 1833

Seisetsu Shūcho created "Moon amid Clouds" as a hanging scroll with ink on paper sometime in his lifetime between 1745 and 1820. Shūcho lived during the Edo period, a time of relative peace and flourishing of the arts in Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate. The scroll uses monochrome ink wash to capture a fleeting moment where the moon is partially obscured. The poem inscribed suggests a sense of longing or perhaps enlightenment, emotions often linked with the moon in East Asian art. "Like a fleeting visit, a ray of light pierces through". The Zen Buddhist influences evident in Shūcho's work invite contemplation on the nature of existence, the beauty of impermanence, and the search for inner peace. The moon, partially hidden, becomes a metaphor for truths that are partially revealed through meditation. The cloud symbolizes the obstacles obscuring one's understanding. Ultimately, the appeal of Shūcho's scroll rests in its invitation to quiet reflection, a moment to consider the harmony and balance within ourselves and the world around us.