As for the beginning, it is considered that in the Sung period in China, Chinese authors Wen Tong, Su Shih and others painted bamboos as the subject of ink-wash paintings and expanded the subjects to plum trees, orchards, chrysanthemums and pine trees afterwards.
始原と考えられているのは、中国の宋代において、文同、蘇軾等が竹を水墨画の主題として描き始め、後、梅・ラン科・キク・松と画題の広がりを見せていく。