Precious Woods, Pure Enjoyment

Artist: Hine Taizan, Japanese, 1813–1869
Period: Edo period, 1615–1868
Date: 1848
Material: Handscroll: ink and color on paper
made in: Japan, Asia
Classification: Paintings
Collection: Asian Art
Current Location: Not on view
Dimensions: scroll fully unrolled: 11 7/8 in. × 19 ft. 6 3/8 in. (30.2 × 595.3 cm)
section with frontispiece inscription: 11 3/8 × 41 3/4 in. (28.9 × 106 cm)
section with painting: 11 3/8 in. × 13 ft. 1 7/8 in. (28.9 × 401 cm)
wooden storage box: 2 11/16 in. × 13 in. × 3 5/16 in. (6.8 × 33 × 8.4 cm)
Credit Line: William K. Bixby Trust for Asian Art
Rights: Public Domain
Object Number: 9:1986

NOTES

This long handscroll painting, almost 20 feet in length, depicts a majestic Chinese-style landscape filled with mountains and water features. It is enlivened in certain areas with human figures, architectural forms, bridges, and boats. The poetic title is translated from the four large characters written in the frontispiece inscription.

At age 35 when he completed this handscroll, Hine Taizan was still considered a young artist. A student was traditionally taught painting by copying the works of his teacher and other masters. It was also common among Japanese literati-style artists like Taizan to copy Chinese paintings to learn brushwork, composition, and a fluid ease with the brush, as seen here. Taizan’s Precious Woods, Pure Enjoyment documents a painting by the Chinese Ming-dynasty painter Zhang Fu (1546–after 1631).

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Precious Woods, Pure Enjoyment: Japanese Art from the 19th and 20th Centuries