, also known simply as , was a Japanese Zen monk and painter who is considered a great master of Japanese ink painting. Initially inspired by Chinese landscapes, Sesshū's work holds a distinctively Japanese style that reflects Zen Buddhist aesthetics. His prominent work captured images of landscapes, portraits, and birds and flowers paintings, infused with Zen Buddhist beliefs, flattened perspective, and emphatic lines. Sesshū was born into the samurai and trained at Shōkoku-ji temple in Kyoto, Japan, as a Zen monk. From his early childhood, Sesshū showed a talent for painting and eventually became widely revered throughout Japan as a wise, reputable Zen scholar, and the greatest painter priest of Zen-Shu. Sesshū worked in a painting atelier whilst training under Tenshō Shūbun (c. 1418–1463). But upon visiting China, his work betook a distinctive Chinese influence, merging Japanese and Chinese styles to develop his individualistic style of Zen paintings. Sesshū's influence on painting was so wide that many schools of art appointed him their founder. Sesshū's most acclaimed works are Winter Landscape (c. 1470s), Birds and Flowers (1420–1506) and Four Landscape Scrolls of the Seasons (1420–1506). Biography Early life Sesshū Tōyō was born in Akahama (Soja City), a settlement in Bitchū Province, which is now a part of the Okayama Prefecture, during the Muromachi period. As a child, Sesshū entered the Buddhist community at the Hofukuji temple in Okayama, Japan. Little is known about Sesshū's early life, but there is a well-known tale that, whilst at Hofukuji Temple, Sesshū's instructor was forced to discipline him by tying him to a temple post. After a few hours passed, Sesshū used his tears as ink to draw a mouse on the wooden floor. The mouse was so realistic that it sprung to life and gnawed at the tight ropes to set him free. At the age of twelve or thirteen years old, Sesshū entered the Shōkoku-ji temple in Kyoto, Japan, as an acolyte under the head priest of all zen temples, Shunrin Shuto, and eventually became a zen monk. Shōkoku-ji temple held a close relationship with the Muromachi government as the temple's main supporters were a part of the ruling Ashikaga family. Whilst at Shōkoku-ji temple, Sesshū was a pupil of Tenshō Shūbun, who was often regarded as Japan's first great master of ink landscape painting. Sesshū worked under Shūbun for 20 years before leaving Kyoto for a small provincial zen temple in