Snowy Landscape

This fan painting by Yamamoto Baiitsu shows travelers crossing a bridge near an icy riverbank and a snow-covered mountain village. Now best known as a painter of bird and flower subjects, Baiitsu—along with his lifelong companion, Nakabayashi Chikutō (1776–1853), whose fan painting can be seen nearby—began studying old Chinese paintings as a child in his native Nagoya. After the death of their teacher in 1802, Baiitsu and Chikutō both set out for Kyoto to establish independent careers, though Baiitsu was less successful than Chikutō. After Chikutō’s death in 1853, Baiitsu returned to Nagoya to take up a position as Painter in Attendance to the Tokugawa-Owari family, lords of famous Nagoya Castle.