Blossoming Plum in Mist and in Snow

In the left-hand painting, a moon hangs above a plum tree sending branches diagonally downward to the lower right. In the companion painting, snow is piling on the vertically ascending branches of another plum tree. The buds are just beginning to open, suggesting that the season is early spring. The quiet, indistinct branches on the left were painted not with lines but with a watery brush, while the areas of fluffy snow on the right were created in reserve against a background painted in pale ink.

Early in his career Goshun trained under the literati artist and haikai poet Yosa Buson, but subsequently was drawn to the realism of Maruyama Ōkyo. His later work makes extensive use of the tsuketate technique of applying pigment to the painting surface directly without outlines and the katabokashi technique in which water is applied to the tip of a brush loaded with ink in order to produce thick lines of dual tones. His paintings frequently have large open areas and convey a sense of lyricism. During the period when his style was in transition, Goshun produced the masterful pair of screens White Plums, now in the Itsuō Museum, which display many of the techniques seen in these two paintings, mainly learned from Ōkyo. Based on the artist’s so-called “Great Buddha Signature” (Daibutsu rakkan), these paintings may be dated to Goshun’s late period, after he had established the simple, light style of the Shijō school.