The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Rectangular hanging scroll depicting a landscape in black and grey ink with rolling mountains on the upper left and water on the lower right. On the center left, a small waterfall flows into the water, a bridge arcing over it. On the lower right, small people cross another, winding bridge. Clouds coming in from the left partially obscure the mountains, otherwise detailed with black horizontal dashes conveying swathes of greenery and leaves on trees.

Landscape

early 1500s

Sōami

(Japanese, d. 1525)
Japan, Muromachi period (1392–1573)
hanging scroll; ink on paper
Image: 128.5 x 111.7 cm (50 9/16 x 44 in.); Overall: 253 x 137.8 cm (99 5/8 x 54 1/4 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1963.262
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Another part of this composition survives in Kyushu, Japan.

Description

Kyoto-based painter Sōami adapted the small-format Chinese album leaf and handscroll painting compositions belonging to the Ashikaga shogunate to the large-scale paintings he created for residences and Buddhist temples. As curator of the shogunal collection, Sōami would have carefully examined its Southern Song and Yuan dynasty Chinese paintings, gaining specialized knowledge of a variety of brush modes, including the soft style used for this painting. The scene is part of a continuous landscape once mounted in the folding screen format. Removed from the screen, this section of the painting was cut down, given new backing papers and a textile mounting with a hanging cord at the top and a roller with knobs at the bottom so that it could continue to be appreciated.
  • originally Soami's only series of Hsiao-Hsiang in Daisen-in, Kyoto, Japan, one of twenty panels in Abbot's Quarters of the Temple
    Kosaka Junzo
    Fukuoka Kotei
    Matsudaira
    ?-1963
    (N. V. Hammer, Inc., New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1963-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Lee, Sherman E. “Year in Review for 1963.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 50, no. 10 (December 1963): 263–294. Mentioned: no. 62, p. 292; Reproduced: no. 62, p. 285 www.jstor.org
    "Oriental Art Recently Acquired by American Museums, 1963." Archives of the Chinese Art Society of America 18 (1964): pp. 69-91. Reproduced: p. 72, fig. 14 www.jstor.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 279 archive.org
    Mayuyama, Junkichi 繭山順吉, ed. Japanese Art in the West. Tokyo: Mayuyama & Co., 1966. Mentioned: p. 350; Reproduced: p. 157, pl. 183
    Selected Works: Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: no. 73
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 279 archive.org
    Shūjirō Shimada 島田修二郎. Japanese Paintings in Western Collections 在外秘宝 : 欧米收蔵日本絵画集成. Tōkyō: 学習研究社, 1969. Mentioned: Vol. II, pt. 1, p. 122; Reproduced: Vol. II, pt. 2, pl. 94
    Lee, Sherman E. “Zen in Art: Art in Zen.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 59, no. 9 (November 1972): 239–259. Mentioned and Reproduced: fig. 16 and 16a, pp. 256–257 www.jstor.org
    Shimizu, Yoshiaki, and Carolyn Wheelwright. Japanese Ink Paintings from American Collections: The Muromachi Period: an Exhibition in Honor of Shūjirō Shimada. Princeton, NJ: Art Museum, Princeton University: Distributed by Princeton University Press, 1976. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 22, pp. 170–179
    Shimizu, Yoshiaki 清水, 義明 and Carolyn Wheelwright, eds. Japanese Ink Paintings from American Collections: The Muromachi Period : An Exhibition in Honor of Shūjirō Shimada. Princeton, NJ: Art Museum, Princeton University : Distributed by Princeton University Press, 1976. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 22, pp. 170–179
    "Japanese Art in the World." The Sun no. 21 (Winter 1977). Reproduced: p. 56, fig. 49
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 377 archive.org
    Zaigai Nihon no shihō[在外日本の至宝 = Japanese Art: Selections from Western Collections]. Tōkyō: Mainichi Shimbunsha 每日新聞社, 1978–1981. Mentioned and Reproduced: vol. 3, no. 66, p. 140, color pl. 66
    Etō Shun 衛藤駿. Sōami, Shōkei 相阿弥・祥啓. Shohan. Tōkyō: 集英社, 1979. Reproduced: pl. 50
    Hamada, Takashi 濱田隆 and others. Zaigai bijutsu: Kaiga [在外美術: 絵画 = Japanese Art Abroad (paintings)]. Tōkyō: Shogakkan 小学館, 1980. Reproduced: color pl. 53
    Lee, Sherman E., Michael R. Cunningham, and Ursula Korneitchouk. One Thousand Years of Japanese Art (650-1650): From the Cleveland Museum of Art: Catalogue. New York: Japan Society, 1981. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 58–59, no. 29
    Seirō Maekawa 前川誠郎. Yama to mizu[山と水 = Mountains and Water]. Tōkyō: Iwanami Shoten 岩波書店, 1985. Reproduced: pl. 13
    Shimizu, Christine. Les Laques Du Japon: Urushi. Paris: Flammarion, 1988. Reproduced: p. 160
    Chance, Frank L. “Tani Bunchō’s Eight Views of Xiao and Xiang: Origins, Ideas, Implications.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 76, no. 8 (October 1989): 266–279. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 269, fig. 1 www.jstor.org
    Cunningham, Michael R. The Triumph of Japanese Style: 16th-Century Art in Japan. Cleveland, OH: Published by the Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with the Indiana University Press, 1991. Reproduced: pp. 44–45
    Oriental Art vol. XXXVIII, no. 1 (Spring 1992). Reproduced: p. 46, fig. 10
    Tsuji Nobuo 辻惟雄. Sesshū to yamatoe byōbu 雪舟とやまと絵屏風. Tōkyō: Kodansha 講談社, 1993. Reproduced: p. 133, fig. 85
    Yūzō Yamane 山根有三, Takashi Hamada 濱田隆, et al. Zaigai bijutsu from the serlies Genshoku nihon no bijutsu [Selections of Japanese Art from Western Collections] 在外美術. 2nd Edition.. Tōkyō: Shogakkan 小学館, 1994. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 86 and 240, no. 53
    島尾新 Arata Shimao. Suibokuga: Nōami kara Kanō-ha e 水墨画 : 能阿弥から狩野派へ. Tōkyō: Shibundō 至文堂, 1994. Reproduced: p. 15, fig. 15
    Cunningham, Michael. “Notes on the Artist Sōami and a Lost Painting.” Monumenta Serica 43 (1995): 405–438. Reproduced: pl. 2, p. 421 and pl. 14, p. 437 www.jstor.org
    Tōyō kaiga no seika: tokubetsuten: Kurīvurando Bijutsukan no korekushon kara [東洋絵画の精華: 特别展: クリーヴラント美術館のコレクションから= Highlights of Asian painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art]. Nara, Japan: Nara National Museum, 1998. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 108, cat. no. 72
    Sŏn, Sŭng-hye. The Lure of Painted Poetry: Japanese and Korean Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2011. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 15
    Admired from afar: masterworks of Japanese painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art [クリーブランド美術館展: 名画でたどる日本の美Kurīburando Bijutsukan ten: meiga de tadoru Nihon no bi ]. Tokyo: Tōkyō Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan, 2014. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 31, p. 103
  • Admired from Afar: Masterworks of Japanese Painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, Japan (January 15-February 23, 2014); Kyushu National Museum, Fukuoka, Japan (July 8-August 31, 2014).
    The Lure of Painted Poetry: Japanese and Korean Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 15-August 21, 2011).
    Highlights of Asian Paintings from The Cleveland Museum of Art. Nara National Museum (organizer) (February 21-March 29, 1998); Suntory Museum of Art (April 28-June 21, 1998).
    The Triumph of Japanese Style: 16th Century Art in Japan. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 19-December 1, 1991).
    Mountains, Rocks, and Water: Landscape Painting in Asia. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 2-December 13, 1987).
    Suibokuga: Japanese Ink Painting. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 1, 1985-February 24, 1986).
    Visions of Landscape: East and West. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 17-March 21, 1982).
    One Thousand Years of Japanese Art [Japan House, New York]. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 1-May 1, 1981).
    Japanese Screens from the Museum and Cleveland Collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 23-May 8, 1977).
    Japanese Ink Paintings from American Collections: The Muromachi period: An exhibition in honor of Shūjirō Shimada. The Art Museum, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ (April 25–June 13, 1976).
    Year in Review (1963). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 27, 1963-January 5, 1964).
  • {{cite web|title=Landscape|url=false|author=Sōami|year=early 1500s|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1963.262