- Gallery Text
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The sandalwood tree towers over the water,
And casts its shadow over the curiously shaped rocks
This traveler wears a lotus leaf for a hat and crosses the bridge
To visit the gods and immortals, where is he headed?
This poem by Confucian scholar Murase Kōtei (1746–1818), inscribed at the top of Crossing a Mountain Stream by a Bridge, directs our attention to the lone traveler who crosses the bridge in the foreground of the painting. The mountains that tower over him seem to lean away from his direction of travel. For much of his life, Buson himself was a poet—it was only out of financial necessity that he began to paint as he got older. He practiced short-form haikai poetry (commonly known as haiku), and his paintings are accordingly rooted not in the literati language of classical Chinese poetry but in the abbreviated imagery of this domestic genre, which celebrates the minutiae of everyday life. The persona of the solitary traveler features in some of Buson’s most memorable poems and paintings, moving through landscapes characterized by intense attention to the details of season, climate, and time of day.
- Identification and Creation
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- Object Number
- TL42147.52
- People
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Yosa Buson, Japanese (Settsu 1716 - 1784)
- Title
- Crossing a Mountain Stream by a Bridge
- Classification
- Paintings
- Work Type
- hanging scroll, painting
- Date
- c. 1778–83
- Places
- Creation Place: East Asia, Japan
- Period
- Edo period, 1615-1868
- Culture
- Japanese
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/20492
- Location
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Level 3, Room 3500, Special Exhibitions Gallery
View this object's location on our interactive map - Physical Descriptions
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- Medium
- Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
- Dimensions
- painting proper: H. 100 × W. 34.2 cm (39 3/8 × 13 7/16 in.)
overall mounting, including roller ends and suspension cord: H. 198.8 × W. 55.8 cm (78 1/4 × 21 15/16 in.) - Inscriptions and Marks
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- seal: top, intaglio: Sha Chōkō-in
- seal: bottom, intaglio: Shunsei
- inscription: Sha-in
- Acquisition and Rights
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- Credit Line
- Promised gift of Robert S. and Betsy G. Feinberg
- Object Number
- TL42147.52
- Division
- Asian and Mediterranean Art
- Contact
- am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
- The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.
- Publication History
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Yosa Buson meisakuten : tokubetsuten, botsugo nihyakunen kinen, exh. cat., Yamato Bunkakan (Nara, 1983), p. 53, plate 19
Buson gafu, Mainichi Shinbun Sha. (Tokyo, Japan, 1984), plate 28
Sasaki Jōhei, Buson zenshu vol. VI, Kodansha Publisher (Tokyo, Japan, 1992), #466, p. 315
Kōno Motoaki, Shincho Nihon bijutsu bunko: Yosa Buson, Shinchosha (Tokyo, Japan, 1996), illus. #27
The Flowering of Edo Period Painting: Japanese Masterworks from the Feinberg Collection, exh. cat., Yomiuri Shinbunsha (Tokyo, 2013), p. 80, cat. 28
Rachel Saunders and Yukio Lippit, Painting Edo: Selections from the Feinberg Collection of Japanese Art, exh. cat. (Cambridge, MA, 2020), p. 55, fig. 42
- Exhibition History
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Yosa no Buson, Yamato Bunkakan, Nara, 10/07/1883 - 11/13/1983
The Flowering of Edo Period Painting: Japanese Masterworks from the Feinberg Collection, Tokyo Metropolitan Edo-Tokyo Museum, 05/21/2013 - 07/15/2013; Miho Museum, 07/20/2013 - 08/18/2013; Tottori Prefectural Museum, 10/05/2013 - 11/10/2013
32Q: 2600 East Asian, Japanese, Chinese and Korean, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 06/04/2015 - 11/29/2015
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This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu