The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of February 8, 2023

Poems and Pictures of the Eight Views of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers

瀟湘八景詩画巻

1605–12

Unkoku Tōgan 雲谷等顔

(Japanese, 1547–1618)

calligrapher

Inkei Gentetsu 筠渓 玄轍

(Japanese, 1562–1612)

Japan, Momoyama period

(1573-1615)

Handscroll; ink on paper

40.3 x 657.8 cm (15 7/8 x 259 in.)

Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund 2020.258

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

The “Tō” of Tōgan comes from the name of painter Sesshū Tōyō (1420–1506).

Description

Works on the theme of the Eight Views of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers existed in China as early as the late eleventh century. This Japanese treatment of the subject features poems by the Chinese monk Yujian Ruofen, who was active in the late 13th century. It also emulates Yujian’s splashed-ink mode to create highly abstracted landscapes evoking misty settings.

Inscriptions

Inscription

Each painting sealed with red gourd-shaped seal reading Unkoku (雲谷) and a square seal reading Tōgan (等顔).

Inscription

Each painting prefaced with a titled poem on the Eight Views of Xiao-Xiang by Yujian Ruofen (active late 13th century) inscribed by Japanese Buddhist monk Inkei Gentetsu (1562–1612).

Inscription

右寫玉㵎之筆勢／雪舟末葉等顔筆

Inscription Translation

Colophon at scroll’s end inscribed by Inkei states, “the preceding is copied in the manner of Yujian; brushed by Tōgan, the (stylistic) descendent of Sesshū.”

Inkei Gentetsu

Inkei Gentetsu was the third abbot of Tōshun-ji 洞春寺 in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan.
Provenance
Mōri family, Yamaguchi, Japan
?-2020
(London Gallery, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
2020-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Fukuda, Yoshiko 福田善子 and Hideo Yamamoto 山本英男. Unkoku Tōgan: botsugo yonhyakunen [雲谷等顔: 没後四〇〇年 = Unkoku Togan: 400th memorial retrospective]. Yamaguchi-shi: Unkoku Tōgan Ten Jikkō Iinkai, 2018. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 78, pp. 150-153, 174-175, 202-203
Fukuda Yoshiko, “Unkoku Tōgan hitsu Inkei Gentetsu san Shōshō hakkei shiga kan (Handscroll of Poems and Paintings of the Eight Views of Xiao-Xiang brushed by Unkoku Tōgan and Inscribed by Gentetsu),” Kokka, no. 1492, vol. 125, no. 7, Reiwa 2, 2-gatsu (February 2020), pp. 22-28.
Exhibition history

Unkoku Tōgan: botsugo yonhyakunen [雲谷等顔: 没後四〇〇年 = Unkoku Togan: 400th memorial retrospective]. Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum, Yamaguchi-shi, Japan (November 1-December 9, 2018).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2020.258