Japanese monochrome ink painting, a technique first developed in China during the Sung dynasty (960–1274) and taken to Japan by Zen Buddhist monks in the mid-14th century. Although generally content to copy Chinese models, early Japanese artists also excelled in the field of portraiture and figure painting. Suiboku-ga reached its height in the Muromachi period (1338–1573) with such masters as Sesshū Tōyō, whose landscapes were uniquely Japanese, and Sesson Shūkei, who worked in the far northeast of Japan.