Taking Shelter from the Rain

A diverse group of travelers takes shelter from a sudden downpour. Heavy rain clouds envelop the rooftops, while the leaves of nearby trees rustle in the wind. A creek, already flooded, is visible at the right, and wild grasses heavy with moisture bend toward the ground. Four men preceded by a bamboo vendor rush to seek shelter under the wide-eaved gate of a large estate, where men and women from different walks of life—a warrior, assorted pilgrims, a lion-dance performer, a flower vendor, a bookseller with a stack of books—are huddled under the roof. A restless child, blissfully untroubled by the rainstorm, hangs upside down from a beam. At the smaller gate to the left, a young mother nurses her baby among a group of women, and swallows flutter about a tree, agitated by the storm. Light washes of color and fluid brushstrokes in soft ink convey an impression of wetness and sudden chill.

The subject of the painting—a moment in the day-to-day life of common people—is true genre, apparently chosen by the artist, Hanabusa Itchō (1652–1724), to represent the summer season. A handscroll by Itchō in the Honolulu Academy of Arts depicts activities of the calendar year and includes a nearly identical scene to mark the month of June.[1] Itchō may have been particularly fond of this subject, as he used it again on a very similar but slightly smaller screen now in the collection of the Tokyo National Museum.[2]

Born in Kyoto, the son of a physician, Itchō was taken to Edo by his parents at the age of eight (or fifteen, according to some scholars). There he entered the studio of Kano Yasunobu (1613–1685), a younger brother of Kano Tan'yu (cat. nos. 107, 108) and one of the leading painters of his time. It is generally believed that he was expelled from the Kano studio, but no evidence exists to support this claim. On the contrary, Itchō apparently maintained a close relationship with Kano masters until late in his life. Working under the name "Taga Chōko," he also studied haikai, a type of chain poetry from which the seventeen-syllable haiku developed, with Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694), the master of the genre. As Chōko, he published a collection of his own poetry. He also came to admire ukiyo-e (see cat. nos. 146–151), which was rapidly gaining popularity in Edo. In the Shiki-e batsu (Commentary on Paintings of the Four Seasons), an autobiographical essay written in 1718, when he was sixty-six,[3] he explains that he had studied ukiyo-e with the goal of surpassing Iwasa Matabei (1578–1650) and Hishikawa Moronobu (ca. 1618–1694), the two giants of ukiyo-e art. Itchō's own youthful activities in the pleasure district of Yoshiwara are well documented. In 1698, he was implicated in a scandal involving Yoshiwara and its clientele. Arrested and sent into exile on Miyakejima, a remote island south of Edo, he spent eleven years as a convict before being pardoned in 1709.

During his years on the island, Itchō eked out a living selling food and occasionally executing paintings for the island's residents.[4] Most of these were simple, casual pictures that exhibit a noticeable decline in quality. But his work after his return to Edo in 1709, when he adopted the name "Hanabusa Itchō," regained its former authority. This new phase—particularly the first half of the remaining fifteen years of his life—was remarkably productive, and it is to this period that the Burke screen is assigned. The screen also recalls Itchō's youthful involvement with haikai, in which the "sudden shower" motif was extremely popular.

During his final years, Itchō returned to the classical themes of China and Japan, which he had explored in his youth at the Kano studio. His own school flourished and produced a number of able pupils, and he had as well many later admirers, some of whom, like Kō Sūkoku (1730–1804) and Teisai Hokuba (1771–1844), painted copies of this screen, thereby contributing to the revival of interest in Itchō's work.

[Miyeko Murase 2000, Bridge of Dreams]

[1] Narazaki Muneshige 1969, p. 45.
[2] Kobayashi Tadashi 1988, fig. 9. Kobayashi believes that the Tokyo version was painted after the Burke screen.
[3] Reprinted in Kobayashi Tadashi and Sakakibara Satoru 1978, p. 119.
[4] For Itchō's activities on the island, see Kobayashi Tadashi 1968, pp. 5–20; and Tsuji Nobuo, Kobayashi Tadashi, and Kōno Motoaki 1968, pp. 36–46.

Signature: Hanabusa Itcho egaku

[ N. V. Hammer, Inc. , New York, 1967; sold to Burke]; Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation , New York (1967–2015; donated to MMA)

New York. Asia House Gallery. "Byōbu: Japanese Screens from New York Collections," January 14, 1971–March 14, 1971.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Japanese Art: Selections from the Mary and Jackson Burke Collection," November 7, 1975–January 4, 1976.

Seattle Art Museum. "Japanese Art: Selections from the Mary and Jackson Burke Collection," March 10–May 1, 1977.

Minneapolis Institute of Arts. "Japanese Art: Selections from the Mary and Jackson Burke Collection," June 1–July 17, 1977.

Tokyo National Museum. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," May 21, 1985–June 30, 1985.

Ishikawa Prefectural Museum. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," July 13, 1985–August 11, 1985.

Nagoya City Art Museum. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," August 17, 1985–September 23, 1985.

Atami. MOA Museum of Art. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," September 29, 1985–October 27, 1985.

Hamamatsu City Museum of Art. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," November 12, 1985–December 1, 1985.

New York. Asia Society. "Art of Japan: Selections from the Burke Collection, pts. I and II," October 2, 1986–February 22, 1987.

New York. Japan Society Gallery. "Rain and Snow: The Umbrella in Japanese Art," April 28, 1993–June 26, 1993.

Chiba City Museum of Art. "Celebrated Four Seasons: An Aspect of Japanese Paintings from the 16th to 19th Centuries," April 27, 1996–June 9, 1996.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Japanese Art from The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," March 30–June 25, 2000.

Museum of Fine Arts, Gifu. "Enduring Legacy of Japanese Art: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," July 5, 2005–August 19, 2005.

Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum. "Enduring Legacy of Japanese Art: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," October 4, 2005–December 11, 2005.

Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. "Enduring Legacy of Japanese Art: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," January 24, 2006–March 5, 2006.

Miho Museum. "Enduring Legacy of Japanese Art: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," March 15, 2006–June 11, 2006.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Celebrating the Arts of Japan: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," October 20, 2015–May 14, 2017.

Murase, Miyeko. Masterpieces of Japanese Screen Painting: the American Collections. New York: G. Braziller, 1990, cat. no. 27.

Tsuji Nobuo 辻惟雄, Mary Griggs Burke, Nihon Keizai Shinbunsha 日本経済新聞社, and Gifu-ken Bijutsukan 岐阜県美術館. Nyūyōku Bāku korekushon-ten: Nihon no bi sanzennen no kagayaki ニューヨーク・バーク・コレクション展 : 日本の美三千年の輝き(Enduring legacy of Japanese art: The Mary Griggs Burke collection). Exh. cat. [Tokyo]: Nihon Keizai Shinbunsha, 2005, cat. no. 83.

Murase, Miyeko, Il Kim, Shi-yee Liu, Gratia Williams Nakahashi, Stephanie Wada, Soyoung Lee, and David Sensabaugh. Art Through a Lifetime: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection. Vol. 1, Japanese Paintings, Printed Works, Calligraphy. [New York]: Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, [2013], pp. 132–133, cat. no. 161.