Road to Shu

The road to Shu, the old name of Sichuan Province, was famous for its precarious passages along sheer cliffs. Parts of this road were no wider than a single person and had to be built out on poles from the face of the cliffs. Chinese poets like Li Bai (701–762) composed poems on this hard to manage trail that leads up Mount Emei (Jap. Gabi). One of the Four Buddhist Sacred Mountains of China, Mount Emei is 10, 167 ft. (3, 099 m) tall. Yokoi Kinkoku was a follower of Yosa Buson and imitated him even in his style of calligraphy. He painted in a rapid and spontaneous manner and was especially successful in capturing the vibrancy of mountains and rocks. Toward the end of his life he became a wandering Buddhist priest of the Jōdo (Pure Land) school. Irregularly and richly shaped, the mountains go high up in the painting. Travelers in the foreground are crossing a bridge and we see others at intervals on the slope that climbs up the mountains. Black ink dotting and live-ly outlines give the rocks a rich texture.