Rain Clearing over a Summer’s Mountain | Cleveland Museum of Art

Before entering into his apprenticeship with Yohei II, Yohei III trained as a painter in Osaka. He continued to paint throughout his career as a ceramist. Yohei IV authenticated this painting as having been done by his father in a box lid inscription dated to the summer of 1919. The signed inscription by Yohei III in the painting’s upper right gives the title <em>Rain Clearing Over a Summer’s Mountai</em>n and is accompanied by his Imperial Household Artist seal. His signature seal is found in the lower left on the grassy riverbank. The composition follows a basic literati painting convention: it is divided into a foreground, middle ground, and background, with trees in the front, a temple in the middle, and mountains at the back. The brushwork, too, with its ovals of inkwash and dry-brushed dots and lines, has the casual feel of a painting made for one’s own amusement or dashed off for a friend. <br><br>As part of his ceramic practice, Yohei III also made roller ends to be placed at either end of the wooden dowel around which the lower part of a hanging scroll mounting is wrapped. These served both as weights for the painting and as knobs for handling it when rolling and unrolling. The pair here, <a href="http://www.clevelandart.org/art/2022.152"><u>CMA 2022.152</u></a>, is made of porcelain with a green glaze.

Mountain Market, Clear with Rising Mist | Cleveland Museum of Art

This painting depicts several vignettes of the scholar-hermit’s various activities. In the lower left corner, the scholar-hermit is portrayed welcoming his guest in the courtyard. In the middle section on the lower bottom, the scholar and his guest are shown encountering another traveler on the bridge and exchanging their greetings. After crossing the bridge, the scholar visits a friend who lives in a compound of multiple buildings. The two friends decide to take a short walk. Both appear in a terraced cliff, enjoying a mountain vista and the fragrance of an old pine tree carried by the gentle wind. The scholar continues his journey with his two servants. They are portrayed crossing a winding wooden bridge. Right beyond the colossal rocky mountain, a panoramic view to a bustling market place unfolds, suggesting that it may be the place where the scholar-hermit’s entourage would visit. Perhaps the scholar need to buy items such as books, rolls of papers, and brushes, all essential to scholarly life. Toward the upper left corner, another group of travelers is landing on the river bank that leads to the city gate; they may be headed to the multistoried Buddhist stupa nestled on the top of the mountains.

His Perfumed Highness from Album of Illustrations for the Tale of Genji | Cleveland Museum of Art

This album contains illustrations for the classic literary work the <em>Tale of Genji,</em> authored in the 1000s by Murasaki Shikibu, an aristocrat of the Heian period (794–1185) court. The scenes are painted in the “white drawing” (<em>hakubyō</em>) mode, in which a fine ink line is used to depict figures and spaces with great subtlety, punctuated only occasionally by traces of red pigment for a character’s lips, a detail of a garment, or a decorative element. These two scenes illustrate episodes from the chapters “Thin Veil of Cloud” (Usugumo) and “Barrier Gate” (Sekiya).

Veere, Dirk van Gelder, 1951 - Rijksmuseum