Landscape with figures, one of a pair

This screen depicts a well-known Chinese poet in landscape settings. Tao Yuanming (365–427), seated in a hut, enjoys a drink while contemplating the chrysanthemums he loved. Gentle hills, pine trees, and bamboo surround the poets' modest dwellings. The representation in art of an ideal life of seclusion became popular in the Muromachi period (1392–1573), when, influenced by the tastes of Zen Buddhist temples, the warrior class began to appreciate the muted expressiveness of delicate ink paintings. While the samurai enjoyed lavish, glittering golden screens in their courts and castles, some of their screens and doors represented literary themes, executed in ink monochrome.