The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Vertically long hanging scroll with black and grey ink depicting a landscape with jagged mountains in the background and a house clinging to the side of a mountain on the left, a creek winding below. Perfectly straight lines create the outline and patterns of the house while expressive dashes convey leaves on the trees that partially cover it. Below, a gate stands on one side of the water and a gathering of people sit on the opposite bank. A bridge cuts across the lower center, the stream roiling as it runs over jagged rocks beyond it.

Orchid Pavilion Gathering

1777

Soga Shōhaku

(Japanese, 1730–1781)
Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
hanging scroll; ink on silk
Painting: 122.7 x 55.7 cm (48 5/16 x 21 15/16 in.); Mounted: 197.4 x 58.8 cm (77 11/16 x 23 1/8 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1979.53
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

The Buddhist temple Bairinji in Kurume City, Fukuoka prefecture, Japan, and the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, own compositions by the same artist on the same theme.

Description

This painting depicts a famous gathering that took place in China in AD 353 to celebrate the Spring Purification Festival, also known as the Double Third Festival, as it takes place on the third day of the third lunar month. The host invited everyone to the Orchid Pavilion to compose poetry and drink wine. Guests floated wine cups down a nearby creek, and where they landed, people had to drink the wine and compose a poem.
  • ?–1979
    (Toyobi, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1979–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1979." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 67, no. 3 (1980): 58–99. Reproduced: cat. no. 120, p. 93; Mentioned: cat. no. 120, p. 98 www.jstor.org
    Cunningham, Michael. “Painting the Wind: A Mid-Fifteenth Century ‘Suibokuga.’” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 72, no. 7 (November 1985): 363–377. www.jstor.org
    "Thoughts on a Group of Deity Sculptures at the Oiso Takaku Shrine." Kokka 國華 1312 (2005). Reproduced: pl. 4
    Soga Shōhaku: burai to iu yuetsu : tokubetsu tenrankai [曾我蕭白 : 無頼という愉悦: 特別展覧会 = Shōhaku show]. [Kyoto]: Kyōto Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan, 2005. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat no. 20, p. 112
    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. 36, p. 118
  • 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).
    Soga Shohaku (1730-81). Kyoto National Museum, Kyoto, Japan (organizer) (April 12-May 15, 2005).
    Suibokuga: Japanese Ink Painting. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 1, 1985-February 24, 1986).
    Year in Review: 1979. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 13-March 9, 1980).
  • {{cite web|title=Orchid Pavilion Gathering|url=false|author=Soga Shōhaku|year=1777|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1979.53