1605–12
Handscroll; ink on paper
40.3 x 657.8 cm (15 7/8 x 259 in.)
Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund 2020.258
The “Tō” of Tōgan comes from the name of painter Sesshū Tōyō (1420–1506).
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
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