View of Lakes and Mountains

Although little is known about Shōkei, from the painting style and the date in which the inscriber died, it appears that he was a painter-priest who was active around the mid-fifteenth century. While he was known to have produced paintings of Daoist and Buddhist figures such as Hotei (Ch. Budai; Kyoto National Museum) and Kanzan and Jittoku (Ch. Hanshan and Shide; The Tokugawa Art Museum), his landscapes are also extraordinary. The painting here is an excellent example, in which a vivid, expansive scenery is magnificently rendered through exquisite composition and delicate brushwork. The goldpainted haze throughout is also effective in creating the vibrant scenery. Shōkei’s landscape appears more sophisticated and refined than that of his mentor (or perhaps teacher), Shūbun (a priest of Shōkoku-ji Temple and an official painter for the Ashikaga shogunate).
Kōshi Ehō, whose inscription appears above the painting, was a priest of Tōfuku-ji Temple who had visited Ming-dynasty China and was acquainted with the elebrated painter Sesshū (1420–1506?). Here, he wrote that the landscape in this painting reminded him of a view he saw at West Lake in Hangzhou during his travels to China.