Landscape with Mount Fuji and Matsubara Pine Forest

Maker(s)
Artist: Kano Tan'yū 狩野探幽 (1602-1674)
Historical period(s)
Edo period, 1669
Medium
Ink on paper
Dimensions
H x W (.22): 154.6 x 361.2 cm (60 7/8 x 142 3/16 in) H x W (.23): 154.8 x 361.3 cm (60 15/16 x 142 1/4 in)
Geography
Japan
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art Collection
Accession Number
F1897.22-23
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Painting
Type

Screens (six-panel)

Keywords
cloud, Edo period (1615 - 1868), Japan, landscape, Mount Fuji
Provenance

To 1897
Bunkio Matsuki (1867-1940), Boston, to 1897 [1]

From 1897 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Bunkio Matsuki in 1897 [2]

From 1920
Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]

Notes:

[1] Undated folder sheet note. See Original Screen List, S.I. 40, pg. 2, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.

[2] See note 1.

[3] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.

Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)

Charles Lang Freer 1854-1919
Bunkio Matsuki (C.L. Freer source) 1867-1940

Label

The grove of pines at Miho, a scenic site in Shizuoka Prefecture, offers a magnificent view of Mount Fuji. Revered since ancient times as a sacred mountain, Mount Fuji appears as a pale apparition, blanketed with snow in midwinter. Fully expressed here is Kano Tanyu's mastery of subtle ink-wash techniques derived from his synthesis of Chinese and Japanese painting methods. His inscription at the age of sixty-eight includes an honorific hoin, a Buddhist ecclesiastical title for artists of high accomplishment. His seal reads: "Kunaisho Kyo, Head of the Imperial Household Ministry."

Published References
  • Takeda Tsuneo. Kinsei shoki shoheiga no kenkyu [Studies in Japanese shoheiga of the 16th and 17th Centuries]. Showa 58 2 vols., Tokyo. vol. 2: p. 32.
  • Keiko Kawamoto. Nihon byobue shusei. 18 vols., Tokyo, 1977-1982. vol. 10 (1979), pl. 28.
Collection Area(s)
Japanese Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
CC0 - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0)

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