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

The painter of this scroll, Isshi Kii, was a Zen monk based in Sakai who was thought to have been a member of the Oguri school, which had strong connections with Daitoku-ji Temple in Kyoto as well as the city of Sakai. Isshi entrusted this scroll to a Sakai merchant who was to go on a trading ship bound for China, with the hope that a learned person in Ningbo, a major trading port during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), might agree to inscribe title poetry on it. His intent was to add more value to his work. The attempt succeeded: there are poems at the beginning and at the end written by an intellectual living in Ningbo.