Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00009757About the Artwork
The inscription at the top of this painting was brushed by Ōbaku school monk Nanyuan Xingpai (Japanese: Nangen Shōha), a Chinese Buddhist monk who emigrated to Japan in 1654, while the painting was done in ink by Yamaguchi Sekkei, a Japanese painter active in Kyoto who was known for his Buddhist subjects, many of which remain in temples today. The figure here reads a text while riding backward upon a water buffalo. Sekkei's painting depicts the Chinese monk Weizheng (986–1049), also known as "Zheng of the Yellow Ox" after his favored mount. Nanyuan's inscription is a poem about the monk.
Inscriptions
関房印 正法（灋）眼/抗志山林邂名宰蒋/ 跨個黃牛翩翩步武/ 扣角穿雲入聖圖/ 石人拍掌須彌舞/ 筆丁卯春日/ 福唐南源 謹題/ 印（上）性派之印/ 印（下）南源/ 款記 梅庵雪渓筆/ 落款印（上）梅庵（下）雪渓
Provenance
?–1973: Nisaburo Mizutani, Kyoto, Japan, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art 1973–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
Suibokuga: Japanese Ink Painting. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 1, 1985-February 24, 1986). Byobu: The Art of the Japanese Screen. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 8, 1987-January 10, 1988).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Yamaguchi Sekkei (Japanese, 1644–1732)
- Date
- 1687
- Medium
- hanging scroll; ink on paper
- Dimensions
- Painting: 116.5 x 39 cm (45 7/8 x 15 3/8 in.); Mounted: 201.3 x 55.9 cm (79 1/4 x 22 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- Japanese Art
- Credit line
- Gift of Nisaburo Mizutani
- Accession no.
- 1973.86
More by Yamaguchi Sekkei in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00009757
Powered by Art Trackers