Spring Cleaning

Yokoi Kinkoku

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

As spring returns to the mountains, men sweep the gardens and repair the thatched roofs of a creekside residence in this painting by the Nanga artist Yokoi Kinkoku. Much of what we know about Kinkoku's life and career can be gleaned from his autobiography, the Kinkoku Dōjin go-ichidai ki. Born in Ōtsu, a town near Kyoto on the shores of Lake Biwa in Ōmi Province, Kinkoku became a Buddhist monk as a young man and in adulthood practiced extreme austerities as a follower of the syncretic Shugendō sect. Traveling widely and never tied to a single teacher, Kinkoku drew from a variety of sources for his painting but is most closely associated with the great Yosa Buson (1716–1783), whose influence is apparent throughout Kinkoku's body of work. Although he never actually studied directly with Buson, so close to Buson's style was Kinkoku's that he gained the nickname "Buson of Ōmi Province" (Ōmi Buson). This work by Kinkoku is in fact a copy of a painting created by Buson in 1774, although its greater sense of spontaneity and untrammeled brushwork, characteristic of Kinkoku's mature works, differentiate it from the earlier 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