Eight Views of Omi

Ooka Umpo (1765-1848) was a son of a retainer in the Yanagawa domain. He was adopted by the Ooka family and succeeded the position of being a direct retainer of shogun.
He studied painting under Suzuki Fuyo and Tani Buncho, and became a literati painter.
“The Eight Views of Omi” was one of the popular painting themes in the Edo period (1600-1868). It depicts a series of beautiful sceneries which surround Lake Biwa in Omi province (Shiga Prefecture).
Umpo depicts the views on a set of four hanging scrolls. Each scroll displays an independent scene and composition. However, once the set of the four scrolls are combined, it turns into a magnificent landscape overlooking Lake Biwa. Umpo may have expressed an idealized scenery from his imagination in this painting.