Description
“Nothingness” or “non-self” is a concept that originated in the ancient Chinese philosophy of Taoism and later became a central teaching of Zen Buddhism. Here, Yokoyama Taikan (1868–1958) sought to express, perhaps even personify, this concept through the depiction of an expressionless child in nature, the first such attempt in the history of Japanese figure painting.
Data source
ColBase
"ColBase: Integrated Collections Database of the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan" is a service that enables a multi-database search of the collections in the four national museums (To...
Contents holder/Provider
Aggregator
National Institutes for Cultural Heritage
The National Institutes for Cultural Heritage (NICH) comprise four National Museums (Tokyo National Museum, Kyoto National Museum, Nara National Museum, and Kyushu National Museum) and two National Research Institutes for Cultural Properties (Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, and Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties), as well as the International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI) in Sakai City, for a total of seven institutions.
Last updated
June 22, 2026