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Japanese literati painting

Nanga

Painters in Edo-period Japan who took their models from Chinese scholar painting: ink and light colour, mountains with paths and huts, often a poem written into the picture. Ike no Taiga’s gathering at the Orchid Pavilion, Buson’s two hermits Hanshan and Shide on a pair of scrolls, Mokubei brewing tea in the shade of trees, Baiitsu’s white egrets among green lotus leaves, Bunchō’s palace in blue and green mountains, and Tessai’s animals at play after the old picture scrolls.

As a puzzle

Quiet and slow, and lovely to sit with. Much of each scroll is pale silk or paper, often with its mounting and a column of calligraphy around the painting, so begin with the darkest ink: the rocks, the pines and the roofs. The coloured ones, the lotus pond, Bunchō’s palace and Mokubei’s trees, go faster. Keep the count low to moderate, and higher only for those.

A good size here: 40–150 pieces.

Painters here: Yosa BusonIke no Taiga

Subjects here: LandscapesMountainsAnimalsEveryday LifeFlowersBirdsRivers and Lakes

25 pictures, pick one to build

Palace Landscape Tani Bunchō, early 19th century Hanshan and Shide Yosa Buson, early 1770s Shōrinji Temple Okada Beisanjin, 1817 Returning to the Mountains, Accompanied by Cranes Tanomura Chikuden, dated 1822 Egrets in a Lotus Pond Yamamoto Baiitsu, 1852 Mountain Stream on a Summer Day Nakabayashi Chikutō, first half of the19th century Meeting with a Friend on an Autumn Day Noro Kaiseki, 1822 Autumn Festival in the Mountains Okada Hankō, first half 19th century Scene Inspired by the Scrolls of Frolicking Animals and Humans Tomioka Tessai, 1890s After Ike no Taiga and Yosa Buson’s Ten Conveniences and Ten Pleasures Copied by Totoki Baigai, 1800 After Ike no Taiga’s “Horse Market in a Mountain Village” Watanabe Kazan, 1820s Red and White Peach Blossoms Tsubaki Chinzan, 1843 Brewing Tea in the Shade of Trees Aoki Mokubei, 1820s Orchid Pavilion Gathering Ike no Taiga, 1765 Hokku on “New Year’s Crow,” with a Painting of a Courtier Inscription by Yosa Buson, ca. mid-1780s Finger Painting of a Landscape Ike no Taiga, ca. 1730s Landscape in Light Colors Yosa Buson, 1775 Cycad Ike no Taiga, mid-18th century Pine Tree and Calligraphy Ike no Taiga, late 18th–early 19th century Jurōjin Yosa Buson, ca. 1758–69 Travels through Mountains and Fields Yosa Buson, ca. 1765 Autumn Landscape Yosa Buson, ca. 1780 Orchid Pavilion Gathering; Autumn Harvest Festival Ike no Taiga, ca. 1763 Birds in Willows and Blossoming Peach Tree Yosa Buson, ca. 1760s Autumn Landscape Painting by Ike no Taiga, 1750–58