The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of September 13, 2026

A vertical hanging scroll in ink and light color depicts a mountain landscape. Toward the lower left, a figure sits within a thatched pavilion nestled among gnarled trees. Rounded peaks rise above, detailed with dark horizontal dashes for vegetation, with a thin waterfall cascading from a cliff on the left. Four columns of Chinese calligraphy and red seal marks occupy the upper right. Muted grays and earth tones define the rocky, receding terrain.

Landscape

c. 1700–1751

Gion Nankai

(Japanese, 1677–1751)
Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
Painting: 102.2 x 55.2 cm (40 1/4 x 21 3/4 in.); Mounted: 189.9 x 67.9 cm (74 3/4 x 26 3/4 in.)
Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1980.81
Location: 235A Japanese

Description

A teacher of Confucian ethics, the Chinese philosophical system focused on social harmony and familial responsibility, Gion Nankai was also a painter. Ike Taiga (池大雅) (1723–1776) was among his students. Nankai inscribed this landscape with one of 24 poems for painting subjects composed by the scholar and painter Tang Yin (唐寅) (Chinese, 1470–1524). It reads as follows:

The mountain pavilion is desolate, visitors are rare.
Mud patches the brushwood gate; leaves patch my clothes.
Rising not from the bamboo bed, my head like snow.
Already without intent, I abandon questions of Zen.
  • ?–1980
    (Marion Hammer, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1980–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1980.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 68, no. 6 (June 1981): 163–219. Reproduced: p. 210; Mentioned: p. 218, no. 278 www.jstor.org
  • “Bunjin” in Japanese Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 21, 2026-June 20, 2027).
    Asian Autumn: Splendid Variety: 18th-Century Art in Japan. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 16, 1993-March 6, 1994).
    Suibokuga: Japanese Ink Painting. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 1, 1985-February 24, 1986).
    Year in Review: 1980. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (June 24-July 19, 1981).
  • {{cite web|title=Landscape|url=false|author=Gion Nankai|year=c. 1700–1751|access-date=13 September 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1980.81