Reeds and Geese (from a Set of Panel Paintings for the Hojo [abbot's chamber] at Yōtoku-in Temple)

This series of paintings was originally part of the sliding doors adorning the main hall of Yotokuin Temple, one of the sub-temples of Daitokuji Temple. Twenty-eight panels survive today, including those produced in later times. These four were among the original sliding doors. They are executed employing soft, fluid brushstrokes inspired by Muqi Fachang, the Chinese monk and painter who was active in the Southern Song dynasty.
The artist was Oguri Sokei, son of Oguri Sotan, who was official painter to the Muromachi shogunate. According to a 1490 entry in a diary called Inryoken Nichiroku, written by a Shokokuji Temple monk in the Muromachi period (1392-1573), the sliding doors were painted when extension work was carried out on Yotokuin Temple, and the artist Sokei intended his compositions to supplement the two panels of reeds and wild geese painted earlier by his father. Restorers’ additions made in the Meiji period have altered the original compositions considerably, but the series remains the oldest known ink painting on sliding doors. The series is also valuable as a rare benchmark example of the work of Sokei, who has very few surviving works to his name.