Old Temple Amid Mountains and Pines

Tanomura Chikuden painted this delicate landscape upon the request of his friend, the influential Confucian scholar Rai San'yō (1780–1832). They sent the painting to their mutual friend Mokubei. Mountains rise up this long, thin screen. The artist has used a delicate touch and light black, brown, green and vermillion hues to create a bright, translucent landscape. If you entered the painting at the bottom and made your way up, you would pass a fishing boat in the mountain stream and some houses in a bamboo forest. A glance further up would reveal pines stretching beyond an upstream bridge. At the top of your vision, you would see vermillion temple buildings peeking out amid the clouds.

As a man of some cultivation, Tanomura Chikuden lived a rich life of poetry and painting in what is now Oita prefecture. This work was commissioned in 1832 by Chikuden's friend Rai Sanyo, a composer of Chinese-style poems, but Sanyo died while Chikuden was on his way to Kyoto to deliver the finished work. The following year, Chikuden added an inscription about these events and he then gifted the painting to Mokubei, a mutual friend of his and Sanyo's, but Mokubei also passed away soon after. This background lends a new aspect to this gift painted for dear friends. Perhaps when we look closer now, we can see the friends sailing on the boat together and enjoying each other's company.

— Museum description: Tokyo National Museum (CC BY 4.0), via ColBase / Japan Search.