Cleveland Museum of Art

Landscape

Sōami

Date

early 1500s

Medium

hanging scroll; ink on paper

Culture

Japan, Muromachi period (1392–1573)

Department

Japanese Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Kyoto-based painter Sōami adapted the small-format Chinese album leaf and handscroll painting compositions belonging to the Ashikaga shogunate to the large-scale paintings he created for residences and Buddhist temples. As curator of the shogunal collection, Sōami would have carefully examined its Southern Song and Yuan dynasty Chinese paintings, gaining specialized knowledge of a variety of brush modes, including the soft style used for this painting. The scene is part of a continuous landscape once mounted in the folding screen format. Removed from the screen, this section of the painting was cut down, given new backing papers and a textile mounting with a hanging cord at the top and a roller with knobs at the bottom so that it could continue to be appreciated. Another part of this composition survives in Kyushu, Japan.

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