Mount Gabi

Mount Gabi is the Japanese name for Mount Emei, located in Sichuan province in southwest China. One of the Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains, Mount Emei became particularly famous in Japan thanks to a poem by the Chinese poet Li Bai (701–762). 峨眉山月半輪秋 影入平羌江水流 夜發清溪向三峽 思君不見下渝州 Mount Emei’s moon – half round in autumn; Its image cast on the Pingqiang, flowing onward. Tonight, as I leave Clear Creek for the Three Gorges, I think of you, unseen, heading down to Yuzhou. (trans. James M. Hargett) In this painting, Ganku depicts Li Bai looking out from a boat, with Mount Emei looming in the distance. Ganku painted Mount Emei from depictions in other books and paintings, as he never had a chance to visit China.