Casually Created on a Spring Day

About the Artwork

Murase Taiitsu’s painting is paired with his own poem that reads: The world's fortunes rise and fall, and my heart churns without repose. I am almost like a fish in a boiling cauldron. Flowers are red, the willows green; spring is as ever. I wander through the forest to visit a humble tavern. The person in the scene gazes up at a tree’s branches, a tavern’s banner waving in the distance. After studying with a Confucian scholar in Kyoto, Taiitsu started his own school. His peers considered him eccentric and many accounts of his unusual behavior survive.

Inscriptions

白雪; 春日偶作/ 世態浮沈心不居洶洶/ 殆是釜中魚/ 花紅柳緑春依舊/ 歩自林間訪酒廬; 太一老人三絶; 太乙老人併題

Exhibition history

The Year in Review for 1981. 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).

Quick Overview

Artist: Murase Taiitsu (Japanese, 1803–1881)
Date: c. 1825–81
Medium: hanging scroll; ink on paper
Dimensions: Painting: 135.1 x 31.5 cm (53 3/16 x 12 3/8 in.); Mounted: 191.7 x 43.6 cm (75 1/2 x 17 3/16 in.)
Type: Painting
Classification: Painting
Department: Japanese Art
Credit line: Gift of Dr. Kurt A. Gitter
Accession no.: 1981.86

Provenance

?–1979–?: Dr. and Mrs. Jack Dodick ?–1981: Dr. Kurt A. Gitter [1937–2026], New Orleans, LA, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art 1981–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

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