Chinese-style landscape painting of the Higashiyama Mountains

By Goshun

Mid- to Late Edo Period (18th–19th century)

Donated by Araki Kumehachi

This work by Goshun (1752–1811), a painter of the Shijō school, depicts a tranquil scene of the 36 peaks of the Higashiyama Mountains of Kyoto. The haiku in the painting are taken from Makura Byobu (‘Pillow Screen’), a collection of haiku by Hattori Ransetsu (1654–1707). Goshun’s painting brings to life the world depicted in Ransetsu’s compositions.

The Shijō school, also called the Maruyama School, was a Japanese school of naturalistic painting founded in the late 18th century by Maruyama Ōkyo. It was popularised by one of his pupils, Goshun, from whose residence in Shijō, Kyoto, the movement took its name.