National Treasures & Important Cultural Properties
of National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan

This set of paintings depicts the anecdote of Kyoyū and Souho (Ch: Xuyou and Chaofu), legendary men of noble character in ancient China who had an aversion to worldly fame and the upper classes of society. Upon receiving an offer from Emperor Gyou (Ch: Yao) that his empire be given to him, Kyoyū washed his ears with river water saying that they were polluted and hid on Mount Ki (Ch: Ji). Souho, on the other hand, left the place with his ox, claiming that he would not let his ox drink the water of that river since it was polluted.
The construction of Azuchi Castle began in Tenshō 4 (1576). Kanō Eitoku (1543–1590) and other painters of the Kanō school worked on the pictures on partitions. In the ninth volume of Shinchō Kōki, there is a description of the structure of the castle tower, which tells us that there was a painting with the motif of Kyoyū and Souho there. That piece was lost when Azuchi Castle burned down. However, in this set, we can still see Eitoku's standard style of painting in places, such as the dynamic lines of the two noble men's clothes or the brushwork used at the ends of palm tree branches.
These paintings were a byōbu with two-fold screens when Kanō Tsunenobu (1636–1713), who was a great-grandchild of Eitoku, imitated it on March 17 in Genroku 7 (1694). It was made into a pair of hanging scrolls later, but it is not known when that was.