Red Cliff

Kimura Kenkadō was a scholar-merchant and literati painter from Osaka, whose residence was a meeting point for painters and writers from all over town. In this work, he depicts the Red Cliff in a dramatic composition, hanging almost menacingly over the small boat below. Even more tension between foreground and background is created by placing smaller mountains in the distance. It is, however, a purely fictional depiction of the place, based on a sketch from the painting manual “Eight Types of Picture Albums” (Hasshu gafu), as Kenkadō had never visited the Red Cliff.