Rocks

late 18th century

Not on view

Buson’s expressive painting of a cluster of rocks is accompanied by an inscription by the Japanese Confucian scholar Shibano Ritsuno (1736–1807):

If it is not the leftover material
from patching up the firmament,
it must be the fragment of a falling star.
Cool enough to sober up
the drunken Tō Enmei [Tao Yuanming],
so dense as to be chiseled
into Ō Gishi’s [Wang Xizhi’s] inkstone.
Inscribed by Shiba Sangen

–Trans. Miyeko Murase, Art through a Lifetime: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection, 2013, vol. 1, no. 317, pp. 259, 302.

Artwork Details

Title: Rocks
Artist: Yosa Buson (Japanese, 1716–1783)
Period: Edo period (1615–1868)
Date: late 18th century
Culture: Japan
Medium: Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
Dimensions: Image: 12 3/16 × 18 3/4 in. (31 × 47.7 cm)
Overall with mounting: 44 5/16 × 21 3/16 in. (112.5 × 53.8 cm)
Overall with knobs: 44 5/16 × 24 13/16 in. (112.5 × 63 cm)
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Mary Griggs Burke Collection, Gift of the Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, 2015
Object Number: 2015.300.158
Curatorial Department: Asian Art

More Artwork

By Yosa Buson

In the same medium

From the same time and place

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Scene from The Narrow Road to the Deep North

, Yosa Buson Japanese, Folding fan mounted as a hanging scroll; ink and color on paper, Japan — Scene from The Narrow Road to the Deep North
Yosa Buson
ca. 1780

Woman Burning Incense, Yosa Buson Japanese, Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper, Japan — Woman Burning Incense
Yosa Buson
18th century

Birds in Willows and Blossoming Peach Tree, Yosa Buson Japanese, Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk, Japan — Birds in Willows and Blossoming Peach Tree
Yosa Buson
ca. 1760s

Visiting the Thatched Cottage in the Bamboo Grove, Yosa Buson Japanese, Two-panel folding screen; ink and color on paper, Japan — Visiting the Thatched Cottage in the Bamboo Grove
Yosa Buson
ca. 1772–80

Lone Traveler in Wintry Mountains, Yosa Buson Japanese, Two-panel folding screen; ink and gold-leaf on paper, Japan — Lone Traveler in Wintry Mountains
Yosa Buson
ca. 1778

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