Plum Drawn from the Mind, first half 19th century, Baichi Dōjin, Japanese, 1785 - 1859, 53 3/16 × 26 1/16 in. (135.1 × 66.2 cm) (image)83 3/8 × 27 1/2 in. (211.77 × 69.85 cm) (without roller), Hanging scroll; ink on paper, Japan, 19th century, The practice of painting blossoming plum branches in monochrome ink seems to have emerged in tenth-century China and became popular among the Japanese literati of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Delicate flowers budding from a wizened plum tree during the winter carry associations of longevity, renewal, and purity. The inscription, shai, meaning drawn from the mind,’ is the opposite of shasei, or sketched from life;’ indeed, this is a particularly free-spirited and imaginative interpretation of this subject. A variety of tones of ink applied in impressionistic splotches with a wet brush convey the vital splendor of a plum tree breaking into a profusion of blossoms at the cusp of spring.