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Is 漢画 the best translation of Chinese-style painting? I saw it at the Kyoto
National Museum in quotation marks with hiragana above it. By "Chinese style
painting", I mean artworks that use brushes on a paper like surface, usually
has few or just one colour, and often portrays a very mountainous landscape.
An example can be seen in the first few seconds of the music video of Dami
Im's song "Gladiator".

When I tried typing the hiragana for it, かんが, the IME wouldn't let me choose
it directly, instead requiring me to choose one kanji at a time, and 漢画 wasn't
listed in jisho.org, nor was there anything for "Chinese drawing". Doing a
search of 漢画 on Japanese Wikipedia didn't indicate it was a redirect or title
for an article, while looking at the Japanese version of English Wikipedia's
article on the subject had a title of 中国の絵画.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-09-07T07:44:41.050
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translation words
Is 漢画 the most suitable translation of Chinese style paintings?
漢画 is not common, although it's not difficult to guess the meaning. 中国の絵画 is
not a set phrase but a simple combination of words meaning "Chinese paintings"
in general.

The art genre you're referring to is widely known to Japanese people as
[水墨画【すいぼくが】](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B0%B4%E5%A2%A8%E7%94%BB) (ink-
wash painting) or more specifically,
[山水画【さんすいが】](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B1%B1%E6%B0%B4%E7%94%BB). These
are the typical 中国の絵画, but 中国の絵画 is of course more than that.
CC BY-SA 3.0
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There is also a sub-genre ジャンル of 水墨画 called 禅画.

> 禅画(ゼンガ)
>
>
> [https://kotobank.jp/word/禅画-681808](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%A6%85%E7%94%BB-681808)
>
> デジタル大辞泉 - 禅画の用語解説 - 禅宗の教義や精神を表現した絵画。白隠慧鶴(はくいんえかく)の作品などが知られる。

The most famous 禅画 in Japan is this one: ◻ △ ◯

> <http://blog.goo.ne.jp/harold1234/e/ef3e2b828689c9410c213bd64fdaf336>
> 円、三角、四角だけを描いた英語名「The Universe」

A famous scene often depicted in 禅画 is 拈華微笑

>
> [https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/拈華微笑](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%8B%88%E8%8F%AF%E5%BE%AE%E7%AC%91)
>
> 拈華微笑（ねんげみしょう）とは、禅宗において禅の法脈を釈尊から受け継いだとされる伝説のこと。 概略[編集].
> インドの霊鷲山（グリドラクータ）上で釈尊が黙って華を拈（ひね）ったところ、大衆はその意味を理解することができなかったが、迦葉尊者だけがその ...
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