Minneapolis Institute of Art

Spring Landscape [right of a pair of Spring and Autumn Landscapes]

Urakami Shunkin

Date

1821

Medium

Six-panel folding screen, one of a pair, ink and light color on silk

Department

Asian Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Our journey through this imagined landscape begins in the lower right corner, where a pair of Chinese gentlemen wait to guide us along a winding mountain path. The ridge of mountains forms an arc that is mirrored in the left screen, although here our guide has changed. An old man riding a horse waits at lower left to lead us through the craggy mountains, where touches of red among the trees tell us that the season has shifted, from the peach blossoms of mid-spring to the crimson leaves of autumn. Our respective guides are given voice in poetic inscriptions brushed by the artist himself on the upper outside corner of each screen. Right: New green sprouts from the leaves’ dark stems, Apricot and peach blossoms open as mid-spring approaches. To enjoy spring is to be in its beauty— Halting my cane, I listen idly to the birds’ twittering voices. Left: A precarious bridge links cliffs extending to the jade sky. In a frosty woods, leaves fall with a rising west wind. A hermit whips his lame horse forward in the autumn dusk. Across ten thousand ravines, the setting sun blazes red. Japan, Asia

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