Chinese Servant Walking in the Rain

Attributed to the artist Gakuō, this painting has a spurious seal of the influential Shōkokuji temple monk-painter Tenshō Shūbun (died about 1444–50), with whom he is said to have trained. Gakuō may have hailed from Ise in present-day Wakayama prefecture, an area south of Kyoto in the Kansai region. Although not much is known about his life, inscriptions on some of his paintings indicate strong ties with eminent monks in Kyoto’s major Zen temples.