Sliding-door landscapes offer a window into the heart and mind
The fantastic mountainous landscape depicted on a set of sliding doors recently acquired by the Art Gallery of South Australia offers an intriguing insight into a style of painting that was popular during the early 19th century in China and Japan.
Today, we often think of conceptual art as one manifestation of modern and contemporary art. However, over a thousand years ago, scholar–artists in China conceived of a genre of painting that featured idealised seasonal landscapes. Utilising the limitless capacity of brush and ink, the literati created atmospheric visions of the natural world. Inspired by lyrical poetic verse celebrating scenic locations, these works evoked profound emotions.
Described as paintings of mountains and water (shanshui in China and sansui in Japan), these fantastic worlds are populated by diminutive travellers and Daoist immortals who traverse mist-shrouded mountains and ever-flowing waterfalls. For these scholar-artists, painting was no longer about describing the visible world: it had become a means of conveying the inner landscape of their heart and mind. The distinct visual vocabulary they developed is recognised throughout the world and continues to resonate with artists, particularly in East Asia.
The Art Gallery of South Australia recently acquired a set of sliding doors, known as fusuma, which were once an integral part of the interior decoration of a temple or residence located in or near the former Japanese capital of Kyoto or the nearby city of Otsu. Sliding doors (fusuma), with mountain landscape, reeds and geese offers an intriguing insight into the aesthetics of painting and interior design during the early 19th century, while displaying the enduring influence of Chinese landscape painting on Japanese literati (bunjin).
The sliding doors, which are the first to be acquired by the gallery, represent a unique addition to the collection, in that both sides reveal significant paintings by two prominent artists, with these created 1804-05, as indicated by the inscriptions. The paintings reflect both a well-established repertoire of nature imagery and trends in Kyoto at the time of their creation.
Based on the materials and condition of the paintings, it is assumed that the sprawling mountainous landscape on one side, created by the well-known painter and poet Ki Baitei (1734–1810), was intended to define a more formal space or reception room. The other side features monochromatic brush-and-ink painting of reeds and geese by Kanō Eishun (1769–1816), eighth head of the Kāno school in Kyoto, which may once have faced a hallway or room dedicated to the preparation of food.
Ki Baitei was in his 71st year when he created this wildly ambitious mountain landscape, animated by gnarled, muscular mountains, precipitous waterfalls and rustic sedge huts subsumed by foliage. A closer look at the gold-dusted landscape reveals diminutive scholars traversing paths and precarious bridges, constructed from lengths of bamboo, while others in huts enjoy literary pursuits and the company of companions.
Ki Baitei was born in Kyoto but spent most of his life in Ōtsu (present-day Shiga prefecture). His distinctive style of painting displays the influence of his mentor, the master poet and painter Yosa Buson (1716–1783), who returned to Kyoto in 1757 and by 1763 was undertaking important commissions and collaborations with the leading artists of the day. Ki Baitei’s boisterous mountains demonstrate his individual creativity and his interpretation of Yosa Buson’s lyrical style, the latter inspired by the highly regarded and restrained compositions of Ming dynasty (1368-1644) masters.
Like many poet–painters of his generation, Ki Baitei revered the history of the Chinese literati culture, as depicted in brush-and-ink paintings of seasonal landscapes. In the later stages of his life, he developed his own highly sophisticated style of brush-and-ink painting, in which he envisioned iconic gatherings of ancient poets at revered locations in the Chinese landscape. This is indicated by the inscription on the painting, which makes oblique references to prominent rivers in the Chinese landscape and his affinity for the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) as well as the city of Ōtsu, which is south of Lake Biwa.
Sliding doors (fusuma) with mountain landscape, reeds and geese, circa 1805, is on display in Misty Mountain, Shining Moon at the Art Gallery of South Australia until early 2025.
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Russell Kelty is curator of Asian art at AGSA. This article is part of InReview’s Off the Wall series, in which AGSA curators offer an insight into specific works or displays at the gallery.
Ki Baitei and Kano Eishun, Sliding doors (fusuma) with mountain landscape, reeds and geese, c 1805, sliding doors (fusuma), ink, pigments, and gold on paper. Gift of Tom Pearce, Robyn Cowan, Lindsay Harris, John Phillips, Raphy Star, Kelly Day, Jennifer Harris, Tom & Heather Karmel and Sharon Yates through the Art Gallery of SA Foundation 2024, AGSA.
Ki Baitei and Kano Eishun, Sliding doors (fusuma) with mountain landscape, reeds and geese, c 1805, sliding doors (fusuma), ink, pigments, and gold on paper. Gift of Tom Pearce, Robyn Cowan, Lindsay Harris, John Phillips, Raphy Star, Kelly Day, Jennifer Harris, Tom & Heather Karmel and Sharon Yates through the Art Gallery of SA Foundation 2024, AGSA.