High Mountains, Flowing Water: Yu Boya and Zhong Ziqi

Okura Ryūzan Japanese

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 231

Zhong Ziqi, a music connoisseur who lived in China during the fourth century BCE, once encountered the statesman Yu Boya masterfully performing on the qin (zither). The two became extremely close friends and confidants, eventually coauthoring the tale depicted in this painting, Tall Mountains, Flowing Water, about their enduring friendship. In Okura Ritsuzan’s interpretation, this companionship unfolds in a contemporary Chinese garden—a setting the Sinophiles of the Edo period would have favored. Yu sits on a large Taihu rock, playing the qin, while Zhong listens intently. Nearby, a young servant fans a stove to prepare sencha. A set of small teacups lies ready on the stone table.

High Mountains, Flowing Water: Yu Boya and Zhong Ziqi, Okura Ryūzan (Japanese, 1785–1850), Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk, Japan

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High Mountains, Flowing Water: Yu Boya and Zhong Ziqi, Okura Ryūzan (Japanese, 1785–1850), Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk, Japan
High Mountains, Flowing Water: Yu Boya and Zhong Ziqi, Okura Ryūzan (Japanese, 1785–1850), Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk, Japan

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