Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00009749Poems and Pictures of the Eight Views of Xiao-Xiang
by Unkoku Tōgan
About the Artwork
Unkoku Tōgan brushed these scenes using the splashed-ink technique associated in Japan with the Chinese monk Yujian Ruofen (active late 1200s). Xiao-Xiang refers to the region in present-day Hunan province, where the Xiang River and its tributaries converge. Each of the eight views evokes a time of day or season. The earliest surviving series of Xiao-Xiang paintings is by Wang Hong (active mid-1100s), but textual evidence tells us the theme appears earlier. It was later adopted in Japan and Korea, as seen here. The poems were inscribed by Inkei Gentetsu, the third abbot of the Rinzai Zen temple Tōshunji, Japan
Inscriptions
Each painting sealed with red gourd-shaped seal reading Unkoku (雲谷) and a square seal reading Tōgan (等顔).; Each painting prefaced with a titled poem on the Eight Views of Xiao-Xiang by Yujian Ruofen (active late 13th century) inscribed by Japanese Buddhist monk Inkei Gentetsu (1562–1612).; 右寫玉㵎之筆勢／雪舟末葉等顔筆
Provenance
Mōri family, Yamaguchi, Japan ?–2020: (London Gallery, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) 2020–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 10, 2023-January 7, 2024).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Unkoku Tōgan (Japanese, 1547–1618)
- Date
- 1605–12
- Medium
- Handscroll; ink on paper
- Dimensions
- 40.3 x 657.8 cm (15 7/8 x 259 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- Japanese Art
- Credit line
- Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund
- Accession no.
- 2020.258
More by Unkoku Tōgan in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00009749
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