Timelessness in the Mountains

A single man, wearing a bright blue and white robe and carrying a walking stick, makes his way along a mountain path in the foreground of this landscape painting by Yano Kyōson, an important figure in art circles in the city of Osaka in the early to mid-twentieth century. The man’s lonely path proceeds in the shadows of two towering black peaks far above—rendered in a concentration of ink dots applied on top of ink wash—taking him through rough, reddish-orange foothills beneath a tree-topped ridge. Yano was an important figure in painting circles in the area of Osaka and was closely involved in the establishment of a number of arts and arts educational organizations over the course of his career. Before the war, he set up a private art school in Osaka, a city that at the time had no training facilities for young artists; his school, the Osaka Bijutsu Gakkō (Osaka College of Art and Design), was destroyed during the Pacific War by American air raids, which leveled a nearby military arsenal. Yano also helped establish the Nippon Nanga’in, a national organization devoted to the art of ink painting, and served as its inaugural Vice President. He later briefly served as the organization’s President, shortly before he passed away.