Landscape

About the Artwork

A teacher of Confucian ethics, the Chinese philosophical system focused on social harmony and familial responsibility, Gion Nankai was also a painter. Ike Taiga (池大雅) (1723–1776) was among his students. Nankai inscribed this landscape with one of 24 poems for painting subjects composed by the scholar and painter Tang Yin (唐寅) (Chinese, 1470–1524). It reads as follows: The mountain pavilion is desolate, visitors are rare. Mud patches the brushwood gate; leaves patch my clothes. Rising not from the bamboo bed, my head like snow. Already without intent, I abandon questions of Zen.

Inscriptions

Artist's inscription, signature and two seals at upper right corner.; The mountain pavilion is desolate, visitors are rare. Mud patches the brushwood gate; leaves patch my clothes. Rising not from the bamboo bed, my head like snow. Already without intent, I abandon questions of Zen.

Provenance

?–1980: (Marion Hammer, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) 1980–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Exhibition history

Year in Review: 1980. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (June 24-July 19, 1981). Suibokuga: Japanese Ink Painting. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 1, 1985-February 24, 1986). Asian Autumn: Splendid Variety: 18th-Century Art in Japan. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 16, 1993-March 6, 1994). “Bunjin” in Japanese Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 21, 2026-June 20, 2027).

Quick Overview

Artist: Gion Nankai (Japanese, 1677–1751)
Date: c. 1700–1751
Medium: hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
Dimensions: Painting: 102.2 x 55.2 cm (40 1/4 x 21 3/4 in.); Mounted: 189.9 x 67.9 cm (74 3/4 x 26 3/4 in.)
Type: Painting
Classification: Painting
Department: Japanese Art
Credit line: Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund
Accession no.: 1980.81

More by Gion Nankai in museum collections

Window onto Bamboo on a Rainy Day
Gion Nankai
first half 18th century · Painting
Public collection via the Metropolitan Museum of ArtAT-00014410

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