Josetsu ( fl.

1405–1423?)

is one of the first suiboku style Zen Japanese painters in the Muromachi Period (15th century).

He is probably also a teacher of Tenshō Shūbun at the Shōkoku-ji monastery in Kyoto.

A Chinese immigrant, he is naturalized in 1370 and is known as 'the father of Japanese ink painting'.

The best known of his paintings belongs to Taizō-in, a subtemple of Myōshin-ji in Kyoto, which is entitled 'Catching a Catfish with a Gourd' (c.1413).

It shows a comical-looking man fishing against a background of winding river and bamboo grove.

It is thought to have been inspired by a riddle set by the Ashikaga shogun, 'How do you catch a catfish with a gourd?'.

It can be viewed as a piece of Zen humor, or as a kōan in visual form designed to provoke the viewer into new ways of 'seeing'.