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Waves at Matsushima by Tawaraya Sōtatsu
The right side of a pair of six-panel folding screens, ink, color, gold, and silver on paper. -
Wang Ziyou Visiting Dai Andao on a Snowy Evening (Ō Shiyū hō Tai Andō zu) by Kano Sansets
In the scene of snow and distant mountains, in which empty space adds as much atmosphere as the pictorial elements, the poet is a diminutive element in the face of the vastness of the winter landscape. -
Spring Landscape by Kanō Tan’yu,
Tan’yū headed the Kajibashi branch of the Kanō School in Edo and painted in many castles, including the Imperial Palace. He used a less bold but extremely elegant style, which tended to become stiff and academic in the hands of less talented imitators -
Waxwings, Cherry Blossoms, and Bamboo late 17th century by Kiyohara Yukinobu
Kiyohara Yukinobu was known in the early Edo period as a “woman highly accomplished in the arts,” or keishū. -
Red and White Plum Blossoms by Ogata Kōrin
A pair of two-fold screens, color, and gold leaf on paper. -
Fishing in Springtime by Ike no Taiga
Bunjinga paintings most often depicted traditional Chinese subjects. Artists focused almost exclusively on landscapes, birds, and flowers. -
Half-length Portrait of Bodhidharma by Hakuin Ekak
This Japanese scroll calligraphy of Bodhidharma reads: “Zen points directly to the human heart, see into your nature and become Buddha.” A man’s face is drawn under the calligraphy. -
Vegetable Nirvana by Itō Jakuchū
Jakuchū employed a wide range of styles, from delicate renderings in color to bold, forceful works in monochrome ink -
Women Landing from a Pleasure Boat Drawn Up to the Shore at Mukojima on Sumida River, Edo by Torii Kiyonaga
Medium: Triptych of polychrome woodblock prints; ink and color on paper -
Genji in Exile at Suma, from the series Genji in Fashionable Modern Guise (Fūryū yatsushi Genji: Suma) by Chōbunsai Eish
This left-hand sheet from a print triptych recasts the episode of Genji’s exile in Suma with stylish ladies in Edo-period clothing in place of the male companions who accompanied the protagonist in the tale. -
Rats on a Scholar’s Desk by Nagasawa Rosets
A trio of rats crawls upon and under a scholar’s low red-lacquer table, with piles of stitch-bound books scattered over its surface and beneath. -
Geisha Walking through the Snow at Night by Kitagawa Utamaro
A geisha walks with an umbrella in a snowstorm, accompanied by a male attendant carrying a lantern and a lacquered black box containing her musical instrument, a shamisen. It is a dreamlike scene. -
Heron and Spring Willows; Magpies in Autumn by Matsumura Goshun
The first screen portrays a flock of magpies resting in dried trees in late autumn, while the second shows a heron taking flight from luxuriant willows on the banks of a river in late spring. -
8 Daoist Immortals by Tani Bunchō
Tani Bunchō (1763–1841) was a Japanese literati painter and poet -
Yearning for a Pleasurable Place in Mountains of the Heart by Kameda Bôsai
Kameda Bôsai (1752–1826) was a well-known Japanese literati painter. -
The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai
Hokusai’s most famous print, the first in the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji: Although it is often used in tsunami literature, there is no reason to suspect that Hokusai intended it to be interpreted in that way. The waves in this work are sometimes mistakenly referred to as tsunami (津), but they are more accurately called okinami (沖), great offshore waves. -
The 'Upright' Tokaido Road #33 by Utagawa Hiroshige
This print shows travelers and porters crossing a steep pass in the mountains at the Hakone station on the Tōkaidō Road
