Winter Landscape, after a Yuan Master

Kaioku, the son of a samurai and archery instructor, was a scholar of Chinese studies and learned first under the official school of painting, the Kanō. Unsatisfied with the restrictive conventions, he traveled around Japan and finally settled in Kyoto, where he established his own school. He became especially known for his exquisite calligraphy and is ranked as one of the “Three Brushes of the End of the Edo Period.” The inscription reads, “After the snow, the rock and the ridge rise to the sky. The wind fluttered the raincoat and passes even through the heavy leather wear. The horse hair are like hedgehogs’ and the heart is like the water. We want to go to visit plum blossoms, but we may not be allowed to do so. In the first month of the winter in 1838, I copied the painting of Yuan dynasty at the journey in Awaji.”