Farming and Herding Buffalo in Summer

mid- to late 1500s

Kano Hideyori 狩野秀頼

(Japanese, active mid- to late 1500s)

Culture

Japan, Muromachi period (1392–1573) to Momoyama period (1573–1615)

Medium

hanging scroll; ink and light color on paper

Measurements

Mounted: 137.5 x 47.3 cm (54 1/8 x 18 5/8 in.)

Credit Line

Gift from the Collection of George Gund III 2015.594

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Location

Not on view

Description

Hideyori is most famous as the painter of a very early pair of genre screen paintings depicting people enjoying autumn foliage at a shrine-temple complex in Mount Takao near Kyoto. In this scene, people are hard at work farming their fields and herding water buffalo in summer. Such scenes were often associated with promoting the ideal of a prosperous realm, and also with the activities of the 12 months. Historical sources are divided on the biography of painter Kano Hideyori, but many scholars now believe he was the second son of Kano Motonobu, head of the Kyoto-based Kano family atelier.