Artwork Page for Reeds and Geese

Details / Information for Reeds and Geese

Reeds and Geese

蘆雁図

1314–17
inscription by

Yishan Yining [Issan Ichinei] 一山一寧

(Chinese, 1247–1317)
Culture
Japan, Kamakura period (1185–1333)
Medium
hanging scroll; ink on paper
Measurements
Painting: 80.4 x 32.2 cm (31 5/8 x 12 11/16 in.); Mounted: 158.5 x 42.2 cm (62 3/8 x 16 5/8 in.)
Credit Line
Gift from the Collection of George Gund III 2015.464
Public Domain
You can copy, modify, and distribute this work, all without asking permission. Learn more about CMA's Open Access Initiative.
Location
Not on view
Print
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Did You Know?

Tokyo National Museum owns a copy of this painting made by Kano Gyokusen (1796–1864) when he was 14 years old.

Description

Reeds and geese has been a common pairing in Chinese literary and visual culture for many centuries. This painting presents the contribution of a Japanese amateur painter, almost certainly a Zen Buddhist monk, to Japan’s fledgling efforts to add the theme to its own cultural vocabulary in the early 1300s. As was customary at the time in Japan, the painter did not sign or seal his work; the inscription, a poem added to the painting by the eminent émigré monk Yishan Yining, along with his signature and seal, was of far greater cultural value. Today, the modestly sized painting has tremendous significance as one of the earliest surviving examples of Japanese ink paintings with reeds and geese.
A hanging scroll in ink on paper depicts two geese swimming beneath long, arcing reeds. In the center, one goose looks upward while the other looks down toward muted gray washes. Thin stalks curve from the left across the vertical composition. On the right, vertical columns of calligraphy and a red square seal occupy the blank space. The brushwork varies from broad, diluted washes to fine, dark lines.

Reeds and Geese

1314–17

Yishan Yining [Issan Ichinei]

(Chinese, 1247–1317)
Japan, Kamakura period (1185–1333)

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