The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 20, 2025

Water Buffalo Returning Home

1781

Yosa Buson

(Japanese, 1716–1783)
Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
Hanging scroll, ink and light color on silk
Overall: 203.2 x 59.2 cm (80 x 23 5/16 in.); Painting only: 130.8 x 46.2 cm (51 1/2 x 18 3/16 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1970.77
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

The man keeps his feet dry by crossing over the bridge while the water buffalo pulls the cart through the stream.

Description

More celebrated in his lifetime as a poet than as a painter, Yosa Buson is a figure central to Japanese nanga. Literally “southern art,” nanga has its roots in Chinese traditions of literati painting, art produced by scholars who painted for their own sake instead of on commission. Buson drew inspiration from multiple styles of Chinese painting, not just those of literati, and ended up more of a professional painter by the time he had become known as an artist. Like other major nanga figures, he operated outside the main government systems of patronage. Japan’s ruler, the shogun, and regional rulers known as daimyō had official painters who enjoyed special social status. Painters like Buson also found patrons among the merchant class, who often enjoyed greater wealth than that of the upper-class daimyō.
  • Shimomura Shotaro, Kyoto.
  • Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1970.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 58, no. 2, 1971, pp. 22–71. Mentioned: no. 130, p. 70; Reproduced: p. 61 www.jstor.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 385 archive.org
    Koyama-Richard, Brigitte. Animaux Dans La Peinture Japonaise. Lyon: Nouvelles éditions Scala, 2020. Reproduced: P. 170
  • Japanese Gallery 235 Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (January 2-July 9, 2018).
    Later Japanese Art Gallery Rotation (Gallery 113). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 20-May 6, 2003).
    Asian Autumn: Splendid Variety: 18th-Century Art in Japan. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 16, 1993-March 6, 1994).
    Buson and His Followers. University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI (organizer) (January 9-February 17, 1974); Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA (March 28-May 12, 1974); Asia House Galleries, New York City, NY (October 3-December 1, 1974).
    Year in Review: 1970. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 10-March 7, 1971).
  • {{cite web|title=Water Buffalo Returning Home|url=false|author=Yosa Buson|year=1781|access-date=20 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1970.77