Chinese Literatus Traveling to a Mountain Temple, by Kano Hidemasa, late 1500s
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Chinese Literatus Traveling to a Mountain Temple

Kano Hidemasa (Japanese, active late 1500s)

late 1500s

Medium
hanging scroll; ink and light color on paper
Classification
Painting
Culture
Japan, Muromachi period (1392–1573)
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art, Japanese Art
Credit line
Gift from the Collection of George Gund III
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

This painting bears the seal of Kano Hidemasa, believed to be the son of Kano Hideyori (active mid- to late 1500s) of the important and prolific Kano family of painters. It features a traveler and his servant in a Chinese setting. The two are on their way to a temple up the stairs, climbing the steep slope of the mountain ahead of them. The traveler, who wears clerical garb, has paused to admire and listen to the sound of a nearby waterfall. The painting is a charming interpretation of a scene that might be found in Song dynasty album leaves imported to Japan.