Landscape

Sesson Shūkei

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This screen was originally the right half of a pair. Mountains enclose a vast lake, which presumably extended across the left screen (now missing) in a conventional landscape composition. The dynamic mountain and river landscape evokes the sixteenth-century monk-painter Sesson Shūkei, who developed an expressive style based on a highly personal interpretation of a popular Chinese subject, the Eight Views of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers. The four themes embedded in the screen are (from right to left): Mountain Market in Clearing Mist, Returning Sail off Distant Shore, Autumn Moon over Lake Dongting, and Fishing Village in Evening Glow. Sesson was active in the Kantō region, which was located far from Kyoto (an established center of artistic production), and therefore developed his own distinctive style. Pasting variably sized sheets of paper onto the screen was an idiosyncrasy of his work.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art