Playing the Koto in the Mountains

The artist Gyokudo was an accomplished performer of the koto, a Japanese stringed instrument that is played by plucking. Gyokudo was also an accomplished poet and painter. In his art he developed a highly expressive personal style in which the forms of a landscape were delineated through swift, repeated movements of the brush. The landscapes he created did not represent actual places, but many had themes that reflected his interest in music and poetry. During recent conservation treatment and remounting, this painting was discovered to have undergone extensive previous repair, including replacement of paper in much of the upper unpainted area and addition of a series of black dots that may have been intended to obscure the restoration work.