The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 14, 2025

Scenes from Essays in Idleness

late 1700s–early 1800s

Matsumura Goshun

(Japanese, 1752–1811)
Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
One of a pair of six-panel folding screens; ink and color on paper
Image: 146.5 x 330.7 cm (57 11/16 x 130 3/16 in.); Overall: 170.2 x 375.8 cm (67 x 147 15/16 in.)
Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1971.43.1
Location: Not on view

Description

Matsumura Goshun inscribed passages from Buddhist monk Yoshida Kenkō’s (1283–1350) well-known collection of anecdotes, Essays in Idleness, across the top of the panels of this screen and its pair. Goshun illustrated the narratives with his vision of the figures who feature in them. The texts cascade down from right to left, forming unique compositional relationships with the images below. The episodes offer a veritable portrait of human idiosyncrasy, from one man’s deep faith in radishes to another’s inability to avoid nicknames.
  • ?–1971
    (Mathias Komor [1909–1984], New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1971–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Cunningham, Michael R. Unfolding Beauty: Japanese Screens from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 60–61, cat. no. 27
    Sŏn, Sŭng-hye. The Lure of Painted Poetry: Japanese and Korean Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2011. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. 29a
  • Stories in Japanese Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 8, 2021-April 3, 2022).
    Unfolding Beauty: Japanese Screens from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 15-September 16, 2001).
    Byobu: The Art of the Japanese Screen. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 8, 1987-January 10, 1988).
    Japanese Screens from the Museum and Cleveland Collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 23-May 8, 1977).
  • {{cite web|title=Scenes from Essays in Idleness|url=false|author=Matsumura Goshun|year=late 1700s–early 1800s|access-date=14 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1971.43.1