Brief Biography-There were five characteristics of Japanese art in the Muromachi and successive periods up to the Edo period:
1. The depictions of nature include landscapes, flowers, birds, and animals.
2. The importation of outside influences. Mainly from China and Korea.
3. The third is using open space between different asymmetric subjects in pictures. (Evident in Winter Landscape)
4. The use of extreme opposites. A complete painting or a painting with just a few strokes.
5. Input of humour and playfulness, derived from life in the pleasure quarters of cities, was established for the first time in 1617 in the centre of Edo, or Tokyo.
Sesshū Tōyō’s work is an example of the style of Zen ink, sometimes known as Sumi-e, or suiboku-ga, imported to Japan from China by Zen Buddhist monks. He visited China, and when he returned to Japan, he established a studio known as the School of Sesshū. Sesshū Tōyō was a student of Tenshō Shūbun.