Landscape

Also known as: Eight Views of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers; Eight Views in the Region of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers

About the Artwork

Kyoto-based painter Sōami adapted the small-format Chinese album leaf and handscroll painting compositions belonging to the Ashikaga shogunate to the large-scale paintings he created for residences and Buddhist temples. As curator of the shogunal collection, Sōami would have carefully examined its Southern Song and Yuan dynasty Chinese paintings, gaining specialized knowledge of a variety of brush modes, including the soft style used for this painting. The scene is part of a continuous landscape once mounted in the folding screen format. Removed from the screen, this section of the painting was cut down, given new backing papers and a textile mounting with a hanging cord at the top and a roller with knobs at the bottom so that it could continue to be appreciated.

Provenance

originally Soami's only series of Hsiao-Hsiang in Daisen-in, Kyoto, Japan, one of twenty panels in Abbot's Quarters of the Temple Kosaka Junzo Fukuoka Kotei Matsudaira ?–1963: (N. V. Hammer, Inc., New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) 1963–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Exhibition history

Year in Review (1963). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 27, 1963-January 5, 1964). Japanese Screens from the Museum and Cleveland Collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 23-May 8, 1977). One Thousand Years of Japanese Art [Japan House, New York]. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 1-May 1, 1981). Visions of Landscape: East and West. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 17-March 21, 1982). Suibokuga: Japanese Ink Painting. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 1, 1985-February 24, 1986). Mountains, Rocks, and Water: Landscape Painting in Asia. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 2-December 13, 1987). The Triumph of Japanese Style: 16th Century Art in Japan. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 19-December 1, 1991). Highlights of Asian Paintings from The Cleveland Museum of Art. Nara National Museum (organizer) (February 21-March 29, 1998); Suntory Museum of Art (April 28-June 21, 1998). The Lure of Painted Poetry: Japanese and Korean Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 15-August 21, 2011). Admired from Afar: Masterworks of Japanese Painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, Japan (January 15-February 23, 2014); Kyushu National Museum, Fukuoka, Japan (July 8-August 31, 2014).

Quick Overview

Artist: Sōami (Japanese, d. 1525)
Date: early 1500s
Medium: hanging scroll; ink on paper
Dimensions: Image: 128.5 x 111.7 cm (50 9/16 x 44 in.); Overall: 253 x 137.8 cm (99 5/8 x 54 1/4 in.)
Type: Painting
Classification: Painting
Department: Japanese Art
Credit line: John L. Severance Fund
Accession no.: 1963.262

More by Sōami in museum collections

Gazing at a Waterfall
Sōami
early 1500s · Painting
Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of ArtAT-00009547

Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.