Cleveland Museum of Art

Chinese Literatus Traveling to a Mountain Temple

Kano Hidemasa

Date

late 1500s

Medium

hanging scroll; ink and light color on paper

Culture

Japan, Muromachi period (1392–1573)

Department

Japanese Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This painting bears the seal of Kano Hidemasa, believed to be the son of Kano Hideyori (active mid- to late 1500s) of the important and prolific Kano family of painters. It features a traveler and his servant in a Chinese setting. The two are on their way to a temple up the stairs, climbing the steep slope of the mountain ahead of them. The traveler, who wears clerical garb, has paused to admire and listen to the sound of a nearby waterfall. The painting is a charming interpretation of a scene that might be found in Song dynasty album leaves imported to Japan.

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