Happy Improvisations on a Riverboat Journey

ca. 1767

Not on view

This scroll records a journey down the Yodo River from Kyoto to Osaka made in the spring of 1767 by Jakuchū, one of the Edo period’s most inventive artists, and his mentor Daiten Kenjō (1719–1801), a Zen monk. In Daiten’s impromptu poems and Jakuchū’s sketches, the two friends capture the scenery of the Kyoto region. Jakuchū transformed his drawings into woodblock prints using a technique that mimicked the appearance of Chinese ink rubbings taken from stone slabs.

Artwork Details

伊藤若冲画「乗興舟」
Title: Happy Improvisations on a Riverboat Journey
Artist: Itō Jakuchū (Japanese, 1716–1800)
Period: Edo period (1615–1868)
Date: ca. 1767
Culture: Japan
Medium: Handscroll; woodblock print; ink on paper
Dimensions: 11 3/16 x 39 ft. 7/16 in. (28.4 x 1189.9 cm)
Classification: Prints
Credit Line: The Harry G. C. Packard Collection of Asian Art, Gift of Harry G. C. Packard, and Purchase, Fletcher, Rogers, Harris Brisbane Dick, and Louis V. Bell Funds, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, and The Annenberg Fund Inc. Gift, 1975
Object Number: 1975.268.70
Curatorial Department: Asian Art

More Artwork

By Itō Jakuchū

From the same time and place

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Two Cranes, Itō Jakuchū Japanese, Hanging scroll; ink on silk, Japan — Two Cranes
Itō Jakuchū
1795

Hanshan and Shide (Japanese: Kanzan and Jittoku), Itō Jakuchū Japanese, Hanging scroll; ink on paper, Japan — Hanshan and Shide (Japanese: Kanzan and Jittoku)
Itō Jakuchū
Ike no Taiga
late 18th century

Old Pine, Itō Jakuchū Japanese, Hanging scroll; ink on silk, Japan — Old Pine
Itō Jakuchū
ca. 1796–98

Swallow and Camellia, Itō Jakuchū Japanese, Reproduction of an original Jakuchū design; woodblock print, ink and color on paper, Japan — Swallow and Camellia
Itō Jakuchū
ca. 1900

The Paroquet, Itō Jakuchū Japanese, Reproduction of an original Jakuchū design; woodblock print, ink and color on paper, Japan — The Paroquet
Itō Jakuchū
ca. 1900

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