Mt. Fuji through Pines

Kubo Shunman (Japanese, 1757–1820)

late 1700s-early 1800s

Medium
hanging scroll, ink and color on silk
Classification
Painting
Dimensions
Painting only: 90 x 30.8 cm (35 7/16 x 12 1/8 in.); Including mounting: 183.5 x 49.5 cm (72 1/4 x 19 1/2 in.)
Culture
Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art, Japanese Art
Credit line
Kelvin Smith Fund
Rights
Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed

View at the Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

Kubo Shunman dashed off this loose image of Mt. Fuji viewed in the distance from behind pine trees as a performance painting, or sekiga. He did it on the spot in the company of members of his poetry club. Six of them, including the club's founder Yadoya no Meshimori (Rokujuen, 1753–1830), added kyoka poems, 31-syllable poems like the classical Japanese waka poem in form, but with a heavy emphasis on humor. Shunman jotted down a poem as well, in the bottom right corner of the painting, before signing and sealing it. Each poem takes the painted image as its point of departure.