Landscape of the Four Seasons

These screens present a Chinese-style landscape, filled with characteristic mountain peaks, undulating hills, agricultural fields, and rustic dwellings, drawn with soft colors and ink. The scenes offer a tour through the four seasons of a year with pale pink cherry blossoms of spring and verdant landscapes of summer featured on the right-hand screen. The reds and browns of autumn and the snow-covered hills of winter grace the left-hand screen. The painting style is inspired by the “plain and bland” manner (in Chinese, pingdan; in Japanese, heitan), which relies on a few, spare strokes.

The artist Matsubayashi Keigetsu has written nine Chinese poems and two inscriptions across the upper portion of both screens. In the last inscription, he mentioned “Old Man Nakata,” namely Nakata Kitarō, who published printed volumes of Keigetsu’s works. It would have been appropriate for Keigetsu to thank Nakata for his support by presenting him with this pair of folding screens.