  Intriguing features of Japanese aesthetics are revealed through the artistic practices of Sesshū Tōyō and his most celebrated work, the so-called “Splashed ink landscape” of 1495 (Haboku Sansui, literally, “Broken Ink Landscape”). Taking the first steps towards reading his art calls on us to recognize a distinctive feature of Japanese landscape paintings, that is, as art objects they have a considerably expanded aesthetic status relative to similar works as interpreted within Western philosophical and art historical traditions.  Of course, the painting object itself is important, but key aesthetic value also lies in the bodily performance the work attests to. Properly estimating the beauty of Sesshū’s “Splashed ink landscape”—similar to how one should appreciate Japanese calligraphy—involves more than simply making judgments regarding the marks on paper, but also calls for an appreciation of the bodily movements that created the work. Because Sesshū’s spontaneous movements were cultivated according to highly disciplined Zen Buddhist practices, interpreting his landscape art demands an aesthetics expanded to embrace the philosophic and religious.