Seasonal Landscapes: Winter

Now comprising three scrolls, this composition was originally a set of four paintings depicting the seasons. The set is among the most important of the artist’s surviving works. Each painting was executed in the gyō mode, indicating a speedy brush with rounded strokes. The terms shin (formal), sō (cursive), and gyō (semicursive), borrowed from calligraphy terminology, are terms commonly used by connoisseurs to describe brushwork in ink paintings.