Meanings
- uncountableA technique of using splashed ink in brushwork painting, especially for painting a landscape.
1979, John M. Rosenfield & William Jay Rathbun, Song of the Brush: Japanese paintings from the Sansō Collection, Seattle Art Museum The haboku idiom had appeared in South China in the thirteenth century, and appealed greatly to visiting Japanese Zen Buddhists, who took examples back with them.
2 more examples
In the very year that the Void began in Kyoto, a Zen monk named Sesshu (1420-1506) left for Ming China and brought back to Japan haboku, or splash ink style and a love of wide open spaces in his paintings. […] Haboku reached its zenith during the Muromachi Period (1470–1550) and then declined.
2004, Benjamin Lee Wren, Teaching World Civilization With Joy and Enthusiasm, page 163His most dramatic works are in the splashed-ink (haboku) style, a technique with Chinese roots. The painter of a haboku picture paused to visualize the image, loaded the brush with ink, and then applied primarily broad, rapid strokes, sometimes even dripping the ink onto the paper.
2009, Fred S. Kleiner, Gardner's Art Through the Ages: Non-Western Perspectives, 13th edition, page 107
Origin
- Japanese破墨
- Englishhaboku
From Japanese 破墨 (haboku はぼく), from Middle Chinese 破 (pʰà "broken up") + 墨 (mok "ink") (compare Mandarin pòmò 破墨, Cantonese po³-mak⁶ 破墨).
More words from Japanese
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
haboku. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/haboku
“haboku.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/haboku. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “haboku,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/haboku.
Source: haboku on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.