Scenes from Essays in Idleness
late 1700s–early 1800s
Matsumura Goshun
Matsumura Goshun (Japanese, 1752–1811)
Japanese Art
Scenes from Essays in Idleness, late 1700s–early 1800s. Matsumura Goshun (Japanese, 1752–1811). Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink and color on paper; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1971.43 Matsumura Goshun inscribed passages from Buddhist monk Yoshida Kenkō’s (1283–1350) well-known collection of anecdotes, Essays in Idleness, across the top of each of the twelve panels of this pair of screens. Goshun illustrated the episodes with his vision of the figures who feature in them. The texts cascade down from right to left, forming unique compositional relationships with the images below.
- Maker/Artist
- Matsumura Goshun
- Classification
- Painting
- Formatted Medium
- Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink and color on paper
- Departments
- Japanese Art
- Accession Number
- 1971.43
- Credit Line
- Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund
- Exhibitions
- Year in Review: 1971, Japanese Screens from the Museum and Cleveland Collections, Byobu: The Art of the Japanese Screen, Byobu: The Art of the Japanese Screen, Asian Autumn: Splendid Variety: 18th-Century Art in Japan, Unfolding Beauty: Japanese Screens from the Cleveland Museum of Art, Stories in Japanese Art (Japanese art rotation)
- Rights Statement
- CC0
Have a concern, a correction, or something to add?
