Stone

Stone (Ishi) from the series Osana asobi ken sanbantsuki no uchi. The woman in this exquisitely printed surimono is painting the flat surface of a tray landscape, made with a mountain-shaped stone. A painting hangs in the alcove beside her. The subject of the painting is Huang Chuping, a Daoist adept who began his life as a goatherd. Aged fifteen, he found a cave and spent the next forty years there in meditation. When he emerged, he found that his goats had turned into blocks of stone. This not only illustrates the subject of 'stone' but also indicated that the print was published in the spring of 1823, a Goat Year.