Zenga

Zenga (禅画; "zen picture") is a subset of Zen painting that encompasses the sumi-e painting and calligraphy of Japanese Zen Masters during the Edo period and Meiji period. It is characterized by direct, simple, and expressive brush work, usually in monochrome. Zenga paintings featured traditional Buddhist figures such as Daruma, Kanzan and Jittoko, and Hotei, often depicted in comical caricatures. Zen sayings, also brushed in rough calligraphy, accompanied the paintings. Simple motifs such as the Ensō, the Zen Masters staff or calligraphy without painting were also popular themes in Zenga.

The term "Zenga" (the Japanese pronunciation of “Zen painting”) was introduced by Japanese-born Swiss scholar Kurt Brasch's books Hakuin and Zenga (1957) and Zenga (1962), as well as the traveling Zenga exhibition he organized in Europe from 1959 to 1960. These postwar Zenga exhibitions were particularly influential. Brasch's use of the term "Zenga," however, prompted criticism from some Japanese scholars including Takeuchi Naoji, who argued that it narrowly categorized the art.

Zenga is sometimes contrasted with "nanga," or "literati painting," made by scholars.