Eight Views of Xiao-Xiang
Sesson Shūkei (Japanese, c. 1492–c. 1577)
1500s
- Medium
- handscroll; ink on paper
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Overall: 15.7 x 289.5 cm (6 3/16 x 114 in.)
- Culture
- Japan, Muromachi period (1392–1573)
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Japanese Art
- Credit line
- Gift of Sherman E. Lee in memory of John D. Rockefeller, 3rd
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
Eight Views of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers can be traced to 11th-century Chinese poems and paintings, the depiction of which had also become popular among Korean and Japanese painters. Xiao-Xiang refers to the region in present-day Hunan province where the Xiao and Xiang rivers converge. Few painters of the Eight Views had in fact seen the scenery; rather, they were trying to portray in ink and wash the lyrical qualities of dim light and a misty atmosphere typical of that region. Each of the poetic titles suggests a time of day, a season, or specific atmospheric conditions—subjects that challenged the abilities of the most talented artists.
In this miniature painting (shukuzu) of the Muromachi period, Japanese Zen monk and painter Shukei Sesson depicted all eight views featured in Chinese prototypes: Wild Geese Descending to Sandbar; Returning Sails Off a Distant Coast; Mountain Market in Clearing Mist; River and Sky in Evening Snow; Autumn Moon over Dongting Lake; Night Rain on the Xiao and Xiang; Evening Bell from Mist-Shrouded Temple; and Fishing Village in Evening Glow.
