Two Views from the Eight Views of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers

In the scroll at the right, a gentleman traveler on a donkey and his attendant following on foot approach the bend of a path beneath an overhanging cliff. Beyond a small bridge rises an imposing city gate, and a full harvest moon glows over trees shrouded in mist. In the scroll at the left, snow-covered mountains tower behind a forested village. A farmer, riding backward on a water buffalo, returns home after a day in the fields. The bent branches of a naked willow repeat the formation of a flock of geese flying into the distance.

The scrolls depict two scenes from the Eight Views of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers (J: Shōshō Hakkei), one of the most popular subjects in traditional Chinese poetry and landscape painting. The setting is a region of South China that includes the provinces of Hunan and Jiangxi and the mountains of northern Guangxi.[1] With low-lying hills often shrouded in clouds, the area was the source of a rich tradition in literature and the locus of ancient myths, popular lore, and historical tales. In spite of its natural beauty, however, Chinese scholar-officials apparently disliked being posted there and considered it a place of exile.

The Northern Song painter Song Di (fl. 11th century), who retreated there after his abrupt dismissal from court in 1074, is the first artist reported to have painted views of the region in groups of eight. Although this cannot be verified, it was certainly about this time that the Eight Views entered into the iconography of Chinese landscape painting. The group provided painters with a formula to represent not only mountains and rivers but the appearance of the landscape in the seasons of the year, at different times of day, and in changing weather and shifting light. Song Di apparently painted the series several times over, most likely in a handscroll format, though not a single work has survived. The general appearance of the paintings, however, can be gleaned from the poems they inspired.[2] The literary evidence suggests that Song Di's paintings did not necessarily depict the actual views but rather portrayed scenery that was suggestive of mood and impression.

The eight scenes came to be known by the following titles:

Mountain Market, Clearing Mist
Sails Returning from a Distant Shore
Sunset over a Fishing Village
Evening Bell from a Mist-Shrouded Temple
Night Rain on the Xiao and Xiang Rivers
Wild Geese Descending on a Sandbank
Autumn Moon over Dongting
River and Sky in Evening Snow

As a subject for paintings, they lost favor in China after the fall of the Southern Song dynasty in 1279, but the theme appealed to Japanese sensibilities and has enjoyed a lasting popularity in Japan. The subject was introduced to Japan, perhaps as early as 1299, by Yishan Yining (died 1317 in Japan), a Chinese monk whose inscription appears on Wild Geese Descending, a rather weak interpretation of the sixth View, now in a private collection in Japan, by an early-fourteenth-century Japanese ink painter named Shikan (Shitan).[3] Chinese representations of this subject were also imported to Japan. They came to be highly treasured and were frequently copied. The third Ashikaga shogun, Yoshimitsu (r. 1369–95), owned two famous versions in handscroll form by the Southern Song Chan masters Yujian (fl. mid-13th century) and Muqi (fl. late 13th-early 14th century). He had the handscroll by Yujian cut into eight sections and mounted, each as a hanging scroll. Seven of Muqi's Views have survived, but only three of Yujian's.[4] As each of Yujian's scenes includes a titled poem, the themes can be identified—as Mountain Market, Sails Returning, and Wild Geese Descending.

Later generations of Japanese artists took the Muqi and Yujian Eight Views as models, painting them on hanging scrolls and handscrolls, and arranging them in horizontal sequence across sliding and folding screens—a format to which they were ideally suited. Emulating Muqi and Yujian and following the nature of the landscape itself, Japanese artists have tended to represent the Eight Views in the washy, nonlinear technique known as haboku (splashed ink), in which outlines are replaced by a soft, painterly wash and then accented in a darker, drier ink applied before the wash is completely dried.

The imagery of the Burke scrolls is quite conventional, though ambiguities exist that invite different interpretations. The scroll at the right, with a lake and a full moon rising, may illustrate Autumn Moon over Lake Dongting. But the gate and crenellated city gate, which may have been introduced merely to counterbalance the cliff at the right, suggest the presence of a Buddhist temple within—in which case Evening Bell from a Mist-Shrouded Temple may be the main theme or a subtheme. The scroll at the left, with wild geese and snow-covered mountains, also includes motifs from two of the Eight Views: Wild Geese Descending on a Sandbank and River and Sky in Evening Snow[5] The scenes on each of the scrolls have also been given different interpretations.[6]

The numerals 4 and 6 are written—perhaps by a later hand—on the back of the right and left scrolls, respectively, directly behind the artist's seal. Three other paintings by Kantei have numerals written on the reverse in the same manner.[7] It has been suggested that each of these five paintings may once have been accompanied by a poem written on a separate sheet of paper and at some later date were mounted together on a screen.[8]

Kantei, like many Japanese painters of the fifteenth century, is known today only through his work. His biography was not recorded until the Edo period, and there he is linked with Tōshōdaiji, Nara. This temple may have honored the artist in his lifetime with the title Nara hōgen, and indeed there is a painting with Kantei's seal in the Tōshōdaiji collection.[9] Beyond this, any connection he may have had with this ancient Nara temple remains speculative. In the Edo period, Kantei was identified with the monk-painter Bokkei (Hyōbu, d. 1478). Bokkei was closely associated with the eccentric Zen monk Ikkyū Sōjun (1394–1481), who took up residence at Daitokuji, Kyoto, in 1474, having lived previously at Shūon'an, a temple near Nara. A connection between Kantei and Daitokuji is possible if Kantei lived in Nara and was acquainted with Ikkyū before the latter moved to the temple.

Kantei may be associated with Daitokuji in an artistic sense as well. His paintings are often described as showing an affinity with the work of Soga Jasoku (fl. 15th century), who painted the screens at Shinjuan, a subtemple of Daitokuji. However, the Burke scrolls bear a closer resemblance to the work of Sesshū ( 1420–1506). Especially noticeable is an allusion in the right scroll to Sesshū's Winter Landscape, now in the Tokyo National Museum, where a precipice is counterbalanced by the horizontality of a city wall.[10] The emphatic outlines, broad ax-cut strokes, and architectonic structuring of pictorial elements by overlapping planes, which characterize the styles of both Sesshū and Kantei, may ultimately be traced to the twelfth-century Southern Song master Xia Gui.[11]

[Miyeko Murase 2000, Bridge of Dreams]

[1] On the theme of the Eight Views, see Shimada Shūjirō 1941, pp. 6–13; Suzuki Kei 1964, pp. 79–92; Stanley-Baker 1974, pp. 284–303; Watanabe Akiyoshi 1976; Murck 1984, pp. 213–235; and Murck 1996, pp. 113–44.
[2] Murck 1984.
[3] Reproduced in Tanaka Ichimatsu and Yonezawa Yoshiho 1978, pl. 6.
[4] For the listing of the extant paintings, see Ikeda Toshiko 1996, pp. 530–35.
[5] Y. Shimizu and Wheelwright 1976, pp. 132–37.
[6] Shimada Shūjirō 1979, no. 63.
[7] The three paintings are in the Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, and on loan to the Princeton Art Museum. See Shimada Shūjirō 1969, vol. 1, p. 121; and Y. Shimizu and Wheelwright 1976, figs. 45, 46.
[8] Y. Shimizu and Wheelwright 1976, p. 135.
[9] Ishida Mosaku 1955, pl. 54, fig.4.
[10] Y. Shimizu and Wheelwright 1976, p. 136.
[11] Stanley-Baker 1974, p. 287.

Signature: Seal: Kantei (on both scrolls)

Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation , New York (until 2015; donated to MMA)

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. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Japanese Ink Paintings from the Collection of Mary and Jackson Burke," February 15–June 25, 1989.

Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt. "Die Kunst des Alten Japan: Meisterwerke aus der Mary and Jackson Burke Collection," September 16, 1990–November 18, 1990.

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.

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. 42.

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], p. 86, cat. no. 107.