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Returning Home

mid-1500s

Japan, Muromachi period

(1392–1573)
Medium
hanging scroll, ink and color on paper
Measurements
Mounted: 165.1 x 55.9 cm (65 x 22 in.)
Credit Line
Gift from the Collection of George Gund III 2015.513
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print

Description

This painting bears a seal reading Shōkei. The style of the seal resembles that used by Kenkō Shōkei (active about 1470–after 1523), a monk and painter at the Zen temple Kenchōji in Kamakura who studied in Kyoto for three years with Geiami (1431–1485?), painter to the shogun as well as curator of the shogun’s collection of art. However, the seal was carved to look like Shōkei’s and added to the painting at a later date by someone who thought the unsigned landscape was similar to his work. The painting has compositional and some stylistic similarities to images by other Kanto-based artists like Maejima Sōyū (active mid-1500s), who trained with Kano school artists. Specifically, the pines clinging to the massive boulder in front of a pavilion with mountains receding into atmospheric space—in a composition weighted in a single corner of the painting—is a Kanto-inflected derivation of the painting of the Zen monk-painter Tenshō Shūbun (active about 1414), whose work was a major inspiration for Kano school painters.
A hanging scroll in muted brown and gray washes depicts a landscape shrouded in mist. Jagged, vertical rock formations on the right are dotted with sparse vegetation. Below, a pavilion on stilts rests near a gnarled pine tree. On the shore, two figures stand beside a small boat. Faint mountain peaks emerge from the haze in the background, while soft ink washes create a sense of vast, atmospheric depth across the water.

Returning Home

mid-1500s

Japan, Muromachi period (1392–1573)

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