田能村直入 蓬莱春旭図|Spring Sunrise at Hōrai

Tanomura Chokunyū

1881 · Hanging scroll; ink and color on satin · Asian Art

This idealized spring scene, rendered in the blue-green palette of traditional Chinese landscape paintings, vividly imagines a sanctuary for the literati. A luxurious Chinese-style villa sits on the water’s edge at the foot of verdant mountains. Two scholarly figures engage in conversation within its main hall, while servants perform tasks on the grounds—one feeding a crane and another sweeping. The accompanying poem describes this setting as the legendary Mount Penglai, the island of the immortals in Chinese mythology. Tanomura Chokunyū was a Kyoto-based literati painter and disciple of Tanomura Chikuden (1777–1835). He served as the founding president of the Kyoto Prefectural School of Painting (now Kyoto City University of Arts).

Artist

Tanomura Chokunyū

Date

1881

Medium

Hanging scroll; ink and color on satin

Culture

Japan

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Mary and Cheney Cowles Collection, Gift of Mary and Cheney Cowles, 2019