March 28th - Red Bamboo
Red Bamboo
Okubo Shibun, an artist famous for painting bamboo, was commissioned by a wealthy patron to create a hanging scroll of a bamboo forest. Taking the job, he painted with all his skill a bamboo grove in red.
The patron, upon receipt of the piece and uncurling it on his wall, marveled at the extraordinary skill, but puzzled about the color. The patron went to the artist and said, "master, I have come to thank you for the painting; but why have you painted the bamboo red?"
"Well," replied the master, "what color should I have painted it?"
"In black, of course," replied the patron.
"And who," answered the artist, "has ever seen a black-leaved bamboo?"
________________
When you're so used to seeing something a certain way, it's hard to look at it any other. The true color itself is questionable. We can't see every color with just our little three cones. Some butterflies have five, and the Mantis Shrimp has 16 photoreceptor cones. If you asked a talking Dalmatian what color his fire engine was, he'd say yellow.
Does it matter if the artist just ran out of black ink and had some red lying around?