Playing Qin Under Pine Trees

The title of this landscape refers to a qin (Chinese zither) player under a pine tree, possibly the painter's own image in an ideal setting. Born the son of a middle-ranking samurai, Uragami Gyokudo studied Confucianism and Chinese literature in a school for samurai children. Gyokudo began to study the seven-string qin, the instrument associated with Chinese scholars, while in his early thirties. At the age of forty-nine, he resigned his position as the head of his clan and took up a life of wandering,composing and performing music, and painting.

Almost lost in the vast mountain scenery, the musician sits under a large branch that spreads to the right. Long,dry brushstrokes contour the peaks and boulders, while short repeated strokes delineate the pine needles,shrubs, and grasses. Full of bulging and leaning forms,the landscape pulses with energy-setting it apart from the still scenery of fellow literati Nakabayashi Chikuto and Yamamoto Baiitsu.