CC0 · no rights reserved
Crossing at Sano
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
Like many paintings from the Sōtatsu studio, a Kyoto-based atelier that ran the shop Tawaraya, this one is done in ink, mineral colors, and gold, and is formally reminiscent of 12th- and 13th-century paintings associated with the Japanese aristocracy. It depicts a man on horseback with two attendants crossing a bridge that once spanned the Kino River in Sano in eastern Wakayama Prefecture. The composition was inspired by a poem by Fujiwara no Teika (1162–1241) that translates as follows: I stop my horse, but there is no shelter as I brush off my sleeves at Sano Crossing in the evening snow.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineCrossing at Sano (佐野の渡り図衝立), c. 1600–1640. Studio of Tawaraya Sōtatsu (Japanese, c. 1570–c. 1640). Hanging scroll mounted as a single-panel screen; ink, color, and gold on paper; overall: 161.7 x 139.2 x 46.3 cm (63 11/16 x 54 13/16 x 18 1/4 in.); diameter of base: 46.3 cm (18 1/4 in.); painting only: 125.9 x 121.4 cm (49 9/16 x 47 13/16 in.); with frame: 151.9 x 130.1 x 3.2 cm (59 13/16 x 51 1/4 x 1 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1949.554
