Cho Densu

Cho Densu

 

(also Mincho). Born 1352; died 1427 or 1431. Japanese painter.

Cho Densu was a master of the ancient Buddhist school of painting. Preserved in the Tofukuji temple in Kyoto are some 40 of his handscrolls (polychrome compositions on religious themes), in which the figures of Buddhist saints are remarkable for their dramatic intensity. A number of Cho Densu’s narrative compositions (Immersion of Sakyamuni in Nirvana, Tofukuji temple; Arhat With a Lion, British Museum, London) and landscapes (Hermit’s Shack by a Mountain Stream, watercolor, 1413, Kontin Cloister, Kyoto) show him to be a follower of the Chinese artists of the Sung period.