The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Vertically long hanging scroll depicting two people looking over a waterfall extending down on the lower left. The landscape features rough-edged mountains in grey-greens and blues jutting in from the right. Standing on a mountain in the center of the scroll, both people have light skin tones. One wears white robes billowing in the direction of the waterfall they look at. The other, much shorter, stands behind, looking the opposite direction and wearing grey robes.

Gazing at a Waterfall

1790

Tani Bunchō

(Japanese, 1763–1841)
Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
Painting: 112.5 x 51.1 cm (44 5/16 x 20 1/8 in.); Mounted: 214 x 54.5 cm (84 1/4 x 21 7/16 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1972.16
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Drive about eight hours west of Shanghai to get to Mount Lu, the mountain range likely alluded to in this painting.

Description

Artist Tani Bunchō painted this image in a mountain pavilion during winter. He inscribed it with two lines of a poem: “The stone cliff of layered rocks is extremely high. Waterfalls tumbling from the skies reverberate in the clouds.” The scholarly figure and attendant carrying his qin (a stringed instrument) are set amid majestically soaring mountains in China. For many people in Japan at the time, the image would call to mind a poem about a waterfall at Mount Lu by Chinese poet Li Bai (701–762).
  • ?–1972
    (Shogoro Yabumoto, Amagasaki, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1972–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Sŏn, Sŭng-hye. The Lure of Painted Poetry: Japanese and Korean Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2011. Reproduced: cat. no. 20
  • To the River's South in Japanese Painting. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 15, 2023-June 2, 2024).
    Japanese art rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (August 19, 2019-January 5, 2020).
    The Lure of Painted Poetry: Japanese and Korean Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 15-August 21, 2011).
    Year in Review: 1972. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 27-March 18, 1973).
  • {{cite web|title=Gazing at a Waterfall|url=false|author=Tani Bunchō|year=1790|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1972.16