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Gallery Text

For much of his life, Buson himself was a poet—it was only out of financial necessity that he began to paint as he got older. He practiced short-form haikai poetry (commonly known as haiku), and his paintings are accordingly rooted not in the literati language of classical Chinese poetry but in the abbreviated imagery of this domestic genre, which celebrates the minutiae of everyday life. The persona of the solitary traveler features in some of Buson’s most memorable poems and paintings, moving through landscapes characterized by intense attention to the details of season, climate, and time of day.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
TL42570.9
People
Yosa Buson 与謝蕪村, Japanese (Settsu 1716 - 1784)
Title
Visiting the Thatched Cottage in the Bamboo Grove
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting, screen
Date
c. 1777–78
Places
Creation Place: East Asia, Japan
Period
Edo period, 1615-1868
Culture
Japanese
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/340363

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2600, East Asian Art, East Asian Painting and Decorative Arts
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Physical Descriptions

Medium
Two-panel folding screen; ink and color on paper
Dimensions
image only: H. 161.4 x W. 177 cm (63 9/16 x 69 11/16 in.)
with mount, flat: H. 177.2 x W. 193 cm (69 3/4 x 76 in.)
screen opened, flexed: W. 170 cm (66 15/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • signature: 夜半翁写 [Painted by Yahan’ō]
  • seal: upper; square, intaglio: 謝長康 [Sha Chōkō]
  • seal: lower; square, intaglio: 謝春星 [Sha Shunsei]

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Promised gift of Robert S. and Betsy G. Feinberg
Object Number
TL42570.9
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Asahi Shimbusha, ed., Buson, sono futatsu no tabi, exh. cat. (Tokyo, 2001), #63, p. 119
  • The Flowering of Edo Period Painting: Japanese Masterworks from the Feinberg Collection, exh. cat., Yomiuri Shinbunsha (Tokyo, 2013), pp. 78-79, cat. 27
  • Rachel Saunders and Yukio Lippit, Painting Edo: Selections from the Feinberg Collection of Japanese Art, exh. cat. (Cambridge, MA, 2020), p. 57, fig. 44
  • Rachel Saunders, ed., Catalogue of the Feinberg Collection of Japanese Art, brochure, Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, 2021), pp. 35-36, cat. 22

Exhibition History

  • Buson: The Two Journeys, Tokyo Metropolitan Edo-Tokyo Museum, 02/06/2001 - 03/18/2001; Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, 04/10/2001 - 05/20/2001
  • The Flowering of Edo Period Painting: Japanese Masterworks from the Feinberg Collection, Tokyo Metropolitan Edo-Tokyo Museum, 05/21/2013 - 07/15/2013; Miho Museum, 07/20/2013 - 08/18/2013; Tottori Prefectural Museum, 10/05/2013 - 11/10/2013
  • 32Q: 2600 East Asian, Japanese, Chinese and Korean, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 06/04/2015 - 11/29/2015; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 12/04/2023 - 06/03/2024
  • Painting Edo: Japanese Art from the Feinberg Collection, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 02/14/2020 - 06/06/2021

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu