Casually Created on a Spring Day

春日偶作図

c. 1825–81

Murase Taiitsu 村瀬太乙

(Japanese, 1803–1881)

Culture

Japan, Edo period (1615–1868) to Meiji period (1868–1912)

Medium

hanging scroll; ink on paper

Measurements

Painting: 135.1 x 31.5 cm (53 3/16 x 12 3/8 in.); Mounted: 191.7 x 43.6 cm (75 1/2 x 17 3/16 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Dr. Kurt A. Gitter 1981.86

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Location

Not on view

Did You Know?

Murase Taiitsu was fond of farting, and even had a seal reading "Fart Master."

Description

Murase Taiitsu’s painting is paired with his own poem that reads:

The world's fortunes rise and fall, and my heart churns without repose.
I am almost like a fish in a boiling cauldron.
Flowers are red, the willows green; spring is as ever.
I wander through the forest to visit a humble tavern.

The person in the scene gazes up at a tree’s branches, a tavern’s banner waving in the distance. After studying with a Confucian scholar in Kyoto, Taiitsu started his own school. His peers considered him eccentric and many accounts of his unusual behavior survive.