Nine Section Silk Brocade, the first painting "Rural Cottages in Agrarian Landscape"

Shen Zhou (1427–1509), a representative literati painter from Suzhou, created this album of exquisitely colored portrait and landscape paintings during the Ming dynasty. The name for this album, “Nine-Section Silk Brocade,” (Ch. Jiuduanjin), derives from the album originally having contained nine paintings of different sizes.
The preface of Gao Shiji’s (1644–1703) catalogue for his collection, Record of Summer in a Village (Ch. Jiangcun xiaoxia lu, J. Kōson shōka roku), dated 1693 (Kangxi 32), contains an entry for this item. Nine prominent figures from the Yuan and Song dynasties were requested to create paintings in conscious imitation of earlier styles. Dong Qichang wrote an afterword, and the album was considered an extraordinary artistic accomplishment.
Of the original nine plates, only six survive, and of these, the first and sixth paintings, Rural Cottages in Agrarian Landscape (Ch. Tianjia gengzuo-tu) and Reeds on Shore and Gathering Water Chestnuts (Ch. Luting cailingtu), are particularly noted for the extraordinary execution of the miniature scenery. In the first painting, a lone man runs along a footpath in the early summer. The ink lines created by the tapering brush are soft and delicate. The second painting is based on a small landscape by Zhao Lingrang (n.d.). The water birds, however, have been replaced by serving women, painted in reds and blues, collecting water chestnuts from boats.The pale colors are effectively combined with the extremely pale green of the lotus leaves floating on the water surface. The topic of the poem was chosen by Shen Zhou’s teacher, Du Qiong (1396–1474), and dated 1471 (Chenghua 7).
Shen Zhou was known as Qinan, but he also went by Shitian and Baishiweng, and while he never advanced past government service, he pursued the three arts of poetry, calligraphy and painting, and came to be known as a leading figure of the Suzhou Wu school.
This album formerly belonged to the late Qing-dynasty bureaucrat Duanfang (1861–1911) and was brought to Japan in the Taishō period (1912–1926).