Eight Views of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers

1700s

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Watanabe Shikō 渡辺始興

(Japanese, 1683–1755)

Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)

Six-panel folding screen, ink on paper

Image: 150 x 356 cm (59 1/16 x 140 3/16 in.); Overall: 170 x 376 cm (66 15/16 x 148 1/16 in.)

Gift of N. V. Hammer 1968.267

Location: not on view

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Description

Watanabe Shiko, an Edo period painter who combined Kano school style with Rimpa style, re-created the Xiao and the Xiang rivers on a pair of eight-panel screens. For this composition, he followed the Kano school’s sense of space, adapted from miniature copying paintings (shukuzu) by the Japanese artist Kano Tanyu. Watanabe revised the typical representations of the Xiao and the Xiang rivers by rendering the theme Wild Geese Descending to Sandbar on the right screen and Evening Bell from Mist-Shrouded Temple on the left screen. He depicted simple motifs—moon, boat, geese, and temple—to suggest the other scenes while also creating airy space.