Rain Clearing over a Summer’s Mountain

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

Before entering into his apprenticeship with Yohei II, Yohei III trained as a painter in Osaka. He continued to paint throughout his career as a ceramist. Yohei IV authenticated this painting as having been done by his father in a box lid inscription dated to the summer of 1919  . The signed inscription by Yohei III in the painting’s upper right gives the title Rain Clearing Over a Summer’s Mountai n and is accompanied by his Imperial Household Artist seal. His signature seal is found in the lower left on the grassy riverbank. The composition follows a basic literati painting convention: it is divided into a foreground, middle ground, and background, with trees in the front, a temple in the middle, and mountains at the back. The brushwork, too, with its ovals of inkwash and dry-brushed dots and lines, has the casual feel of a painting made for one’s own amusement or dashed off for a friend. As part of his ceramic practice, Yohei III also made roller ends to be placed at either end of the wooden dowel around which the lower part of a hanging scroll mounting is wrapped. These served both as weights for the painting and as knobs for handling it when rolling and unrolling. The pair here, CMA 2022.152 , is made of porcelain with a green glaze. Seifū Yohei III studied to paint ink compositions in an abstracted, calligraphic way associated with well-read people who made paintings for their own amusement and as gifts for friends.