A literati painter, Ike no Taiga favored traditional subjects and painted numerous compositions featuring bamboo, possibly to satisfy customers in Kyoto. Bamboo sprouting from rocks and withstanding wind and rain is a potent metaphor in Zen and Japanese culture: despite harsh weather, bamboo bends but does not break. Though Taiga painted this traditional scene derived from Chinese precedent, he cleverly truncates the leaves of the plant and renders the rock flat, as if pressed against the surface of the painting. In so doing, he implies, in a few confident brushstrokes, that a vast landscape extends beyond the boundaries of this scroll.

 

—Bradley Bailey