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

Originally on the sliding doors in the priest’s living quarters at Yotoku-in, a sub-temple of Daitoku-ji Temple, these paintings had been thought to comprise a series with other paintings at the temple, such as Landscape and Reeds and Geese, both painted in 1490 (Entoku 2). The difference in the way the paper is joined, however, tells us they were more likely to have been created at a later time, probably in 1507 (Eisei 4), when Yotoku-in was relocated. The painter was Sokei (n.d.), son of Sotan (lay surname: Oguri), a painter favored by the Ashikaga shogunate. It is known that he was a monk at Shokoku-ji Temple, Kyoto, but later became a layman in order to begin a career as a professional painter. It has been surmised that Sokei and another well-regarded painter, Shabaku, about whom little is known, were in fact the same person.