Southern Mountain Bamboo

Ema Saikō, a leading artist and poet of her time, was particularly known for her bamboo paintings. To emulate classic Chinese works, she layered her brushstrokes in graded intensities of ink to suggest space and form. Her crisp, precise lines impart a clean and well-ordered elegance despite the complexity of the composition. Although women generally were of low status in Edo-period society, several prominent female artists, poets, and calligraphers, like Saikō, thrived.