Views of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers [left of a pair]

In addition to emulating Chinese ink brushwork, Japanese artists of the Nanga school also adopted Chinese subject matter. For these screens, Kushiro Unzen depicted the confluence of the Hsiao and Hsiang rivers in Hunan province, even though governmental restrictions prevented him from traveling to China. In fact, the subject had been a stock theme for Chinese artists since the tenth century. Traveling monks probably introduced it to Japan during the fifteenth century, and so by Unzen’s time it was a well-established subject. Unzen studied ink painting directly under Chinese artists who visited the treaty port of Nagasaki. He also followed the ideal life of a Chinese literatus, traveling extensively to meet fellow artists and leading an otherwise eremitic existence. This work, completed near the end of his life, exemplifies the quiet elegance that made him popular among educated patrons during the eighteenth century.