Landscape

The individual responsible for this painting, executed in ink with touches of light color wash, was clearly influenced by Chinese Song-dynasty ink landscape paintings, as were many Japanese artists of the Muromachi period. The landscape is of a monumental type more closely associated with the Northern Song (960–1127) than the Southern Song (1127–1279), although the model could also have been a work of the early Ming dynasty (1368–1644) from a Japanese temple collection. There is a clear distinction between foreground, middle ground, and far distance, arranged with a hilly foreground from which a path and bridge lead to a middle ground with trees and a small mountain; a hint of a band of mist precedes the wall of cliffs and mountains that make up the distant ground. Architectural structures—temples or villages—are tucked away among the rocks and trees, and ink dots applied for vegetation, along with scattered axe-cut strokes typical of Chinese academic painting, indicate the artist’s familiarity with Chinese ink painting techniques.

It is possible to date this work because of the inscription by the Rinzai Zen monk Ten’in Ryūtaku, known for his poems (in Chinese) on the Chinese theme of the "Eight Views of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers." He was also responsible for compiling the Kinshūdan (Collection of Brocade Pieces), an anthology of Chinese poems from the Tang through the Ming dynasty.