Moonlit Landscape

late 15th century

Japanese, active late 15th century

In this painting, rocky crags and forested hills are skillfully rendered by the splashed ink technique, in which ink is spattered from a hand or brush to convey forms and texture. Layers of gradated ink create a sensation of depth, with forms growing ever paler as the eye moves into the distance. The round moon, barely visible in the hazy sky, is not rendered by the use of outlines but rather is merely suggested—the presence of a small, circular area of unpainted paper.

Hanging scroll; ink and light color on paper

Image: 22 3/16 × 8 7/16 in. (56.3 × 21.5 cm)

Overall (Incl mounting & hanging braid): 57 1/16 × 13 15/16 in. (145 × 35.4 cm)

Other (hanging height: ptg midpoint to top of hanging braid): 34 1/4 in. (87 cm)

Eugene Fuller Memorial Collection

55.55

Photo: Paul Macapia

Now on view at the Asian Art Museum

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, A Thousand Cranes: Treasures Of Japanese Art, Feb. 5 - July 12, 1987.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Masterpieces of Japanese Art from the Collection of the Seattle Art Museum, Nov. 1, 1998 - Mar. 1, 1999.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, A Thousand Years of Beauty: Japanese Art in Seattle, July 16, 2001 - Nov. 17, 2002.

Tokyo, Japan, Suntory Museum of Art, Luminous Jewels: Masterpieces of Asian Art From the Seattle Art Museum, July 25 - Sept. 6, 2009 (Kobe, Japan, Kobe City Museum, Sept. 19 - Dec. 6, 2009; Kofu, Japan, Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art, Dec. 23, 2009 - Feb. 28, 2010; Atami, Japan, MOA Museum of Art, Mar. 13 - May 9, 2010; Fukuoka, Japan, Fukuoka Art Museum, May 23 - July 19, 2010).

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Luminous: The Art of Asia, Oct. 13, 2011 - Jan. 8, 2012.

Published ReferencesFuller, Richard E. "Japanese Art in the Seattle Art Museum: An Historical Sketch." Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum, 1960 ("Presented in commemoration of the Hundredth Anniversary of Diplomatic Relations between Japan and the United States of America"), no. 92

Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, "A Thousand Cranes: Treasures Of Japanese Art", copublished by Chronicle Books, San Francisco, CA, 1987, ill. p.145

Applebee, Arthur N., "World Literature", McDougal Littell publisher, 2009, color illustration, pg. 492

Kawai, Masatomo, Yasuhiro Nishioka, Yukiko Sirahara, editors, "Luminous Jewels: Masterpieces of Asian Art From the Seattle Art Museum", 2009, The Yomiuri Shimbun

Lippit, Yukio. "Of Modes and Manners in Japanese Ink Painting: Sesshū's "Splashed Ink Landscape" of 1495." The Art Bulletin Vol. 94, no. 1 (March 2012): pp. 50-77, reproduced fig. 21.

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