Renouncing his status as a high-ranking samurai official, Urakami Gyokudō devoted his life to painting and to playing the seven-string zither, or shichigenkin. His artworks are characterized by short, horizontal brushstrokes, forming mountains and trees in misty rain. These rhythmic strokes, which draw from Chinese painting conventions, have often been linked to his identity as a musician.
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Medium:Folding fan mounted as a hanging scroll; ink on paper
Dimensions:Image: 8 9/16 × 18 7/8 in. (21.7 × 48 cm) Overall with mounting: 41 3/4 × 23 1/2 in. (106 × 59.7 cm) Overall with knobs: 41 3/4 × 25 11/16 in. (106 × 65.2 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Mary Griggs Burke Collection, Gift of the Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, 2015
Object Number:2015.300.176
This small composition evokes a country landscape in changing weather. As the artist, Uragami Gyokudō (1745–1820), notes in his inscription, rain still lingers over half the hamlet. Mountain peaks reemerge through the mist while the area below remains enveloped in vapor. A pagoda and two roofs, barely visible at the far right, are the only signs of a village; the tiny figure of a solitary man in the center foreground is almost indecipherable.
Using a fine brush and dry ink, Gyokudō here paints with greater restraint than in Crossing a Mountain Bridge (cat. no. 161), employing short, carefully executed strokes. Although his dated paintings are very few, it would appear that the works from the last years of his life are less exuberant in their display of dark, wet ink. Heavy sizing on the paper has given it a silvery sheen. The scratchy lines in varying shades of gray on the shiny paper lend a pearl-like, translucent quality. As a true bunjin, Gyokudō seldom painted screens; only one, dating to 1815, is known. Of the many fans that he painted, two which closely resemble this one also date to the last period in his career, when the artist was in his seventies.[1]
[Miyeko Murase 2000, Bridge of Dreams]
[1] Sugimoto Hidetarō and Hoshino Suzu 1994, p. 104.
Marking: Seals: Hakuzen Kinshi, Kinsen
Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation , New York (until 2015; donated to MMA)
Tokyo National Museum. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," May 21, 1985–June 30, 1985.
Nagoya City Art Museum. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," August 17, 1985–September 23, 1985.
Atami. MOA Museum of Art. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," September 29, 1985–October 27, 1985.
Hamamatsu City Museum of Art. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," November 12, 1985–December 1, 1985.
New York. Asia Society. "Art of Japan: Selections from the Burke Collection, pts. I and II," October 2, 1986–February 22, 1987.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Paintings of the Nanga School," January 27–May 13, 1990.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Japanese Art from The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," March 30–June 25, 2000.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Celebrating the Arts of Japan: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," October 20, 2015–May 14, 2017.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Three Perfections: Japanese Poetry, Calligraphy, and Painting from the Mary and Cheney Cowles Collection," August 10, 2024–August 3, 2025.
Murase, Miyeko, Il Kim, Shi-yee Liu, Gratia Williams Nakahashi, Stephanie Wada, Soyoung Lee, and David Sensabaugh. Art Through a Lifetime: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection. Vol. 1, Japanese Paintings, Printed Works, Calligraphy. [New York]: Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, [2013], p. 276, cat. no. 348.
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