秋冬山水図（しゅうとうさんすいず）Landscapes of Autumn and Winter

　画面下部は、違和感のない風景画ですが、中央から山の稜線のような力強い線が伸び始め、やがては天に向かって垂直の伸びていきます。その右は峻厳たる岩肌のようであり、左は柔らかい遠景の山の風景のようにも思えます。一体全体、なんなんでしょう。初めてこの絵を見たとき、この理解できない表現に強い衝撃を受けました。

　画面の下半分は現実の世界、上半分は非現実世界の抽象画と理解して、やっと納得できました。自由な着想の雪舟に完全にのせられていました。

　The lower part of this painting is a landscape without strange feeling, but a powerful line like the ridge of a mountain begins to grow from the center, and eventually extends vertically toward the sky. The right side looks like a steep rock surface, and the left side could be a soft distant mountain landscape. What on earth is this?

　When I was a junior high school student, I saw this painting for the first time, and I was shocked by this expression which I couldn't interpret.

　If I think of the lower half as the real world and the upper half as the abstract world, it makes sense. I played into the hand of Sessyu who had a free idea.

雪舟作　painted by Sesshu