Minneapolis Institute of Art

Strange Sights Within the Sea

Ōkubo Shibutsu

Date

1832

Medium

Hanging scroll, ink on paper

Department

Asian Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Brushed carefully in clerical script, each character fills its space, anchoring itself on the paper. Read Hainei qiguan in Chinese, the text likely refers to the title of a Chinese printed illustrated book of famous sites. Published in 1609 by Yang Erzeng, the book attracted the attention of painters and calligraphers in Japan who were interested in Chinese culture. Ōkubo studied and wrote kanshi, or poetry written using Chinese characters following Chinese compositional rules. He was well-connected to scholars of Confucianism and Chinese literature and may have encountered the publication through them. 海内竒觀 Strange sights within the sea Asia

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