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Scenes from Essays in Idleness

Matsumura Goshunlate 1700s–early 1800s

The Cleveland Museum of Art

The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States

Matsumura Goshun inscribed passages from Buddhist monk Yoshida Kenkō’s (1283–1350) well-known collection of anecdotes, <em>Essays in Idleness,</em> across the top of the panels of this screen and its pair. Goshun illustrated the narratives with his vision of the figures who feature in them. The texts cascade down from right to left, forming unique compositional relationships with the images below. The episodes offer a veritable portrait of human idiosyncrasy, from one man’s deep faith in radishes to another’s inability to avoid nicknames.

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  • Title: Scenes from Essays in Idleness
  • Creator: Matsumura Goshun (Japanese, 1752-1811)
  • Date Created: late 1700s–early 1800s
  • Physical Dimensions: Image: 146.5 x 330.7 cm (57 11/16 x 130 3/16 in.); Overall: 170.2 x 375.8 cm (67 x 147 15/16 in.)
  • Provenance: (Mathias Komor [1909-1984], New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art), The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Type: Painting
  • Rights: CC0
  • External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/1971.43.2
  • Medium: One of a pair of six-panel folding screens; ink and color on paper
  • Original Title: 徒然草図屏風
  • Department: Japanese Art
  • Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615-1868)
  • Credit Line: Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund
  • Collection: ASIAN - Folding screen
  • Accession Number: 1971.43.2
The Cleveland Museum of Art

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