Landscape of Four Seasons
Artist:
Unkoku Tōgan
(Japanese, 1547 - 1618)
Culture: Japanese
Date: ca. 1600
Period: Edo
Place made:Japan
General region:Asia
Medium: Ink and light color on paper
Dimensions:
height, each: 71 in. (180.3 cm)
width, each: 142 in. (360.7 cm)
Credit Line: San Antonio Museum of Art, purchased with funds provided by the Lillie and Roy Cullen Endowment Fund
Object number: 2019.11.a-b
Signed: Unkoku Togan (1547-1618)
Label Text
This expansive scene is an imaginary landscape set in China. At lower right, a solitary traveler crosses a bridge leading to a village with pavilions and boats lined up along the shore. In the distance, a moon rising from a low horizon suggests the time of day is early evening, when fishermen return their boats to port. The themes of evening, fishermen, moonrise, and distant temples suggest classical Chinese landscape subjects that were most prominent in Japan among important painter-monks at Zen temples during the earlier Muromachi period (1338–1573). This pair of two-fold screens originally formed the right screen of a six-panel pair. It is thought to have been formatted into the two-panel form during the Edo period (1600–1868).
Unkoku Tōgan was a major painter during the Momoyama period (1573–1615) who revived the Zen ink style of the famous painter-monk, Sesshū Tōyō (1420–1506). Tōgan served a Daimyo, Mōri Terumoto (1553–1625) in Hiroshima, who granted him Sesshū’s former studio, the Unkoku-an (“Cloudy Valley Hermitage”) in Yamaguchi Prefecture, which Tōgan took as his own name to show his lineage from Sesshū.
Unkoku Tōgan was a major painter during the Momoyama period (1573–1615) who revived the Zen ink style of the famous painter-monk, Sesshū Tōyō (1420–1506). Tōgan served a Daimyo, Mōri Terumoto (1553–1625) in Hiroshima, who granted him Sesshū’s former studio, the Unkoku-an (“Cloudy Valley Hermitage”) in Yamaguchi Prefecture, which Tōgan took as his own name to show his lineage from Sesshū.
Not on view
In Collection(s)
The San Antonio Museum of Art is in the process of digitizing its permanent collection. This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect SAMA's complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of such records is ongoing.
This resource has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor.
