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

Little is known about the artist Geiai (n.d.), though he seems to have been active primary in Kyoto during the mid-sixteenth century and to have inherited the style of Sotan (1413-1481; lay name Oguri), an official painter for the Ashikaga shogunate. Geiai appears to have had close connections with Daitoku-ji Temple. It is likely that he was also responsible for a set of screen and wall paintings (destroyed in a fire at the end of the Edo period) in the abbot‘s quarters of the Daitoku-ji subtemple Ryusho-ji, made on the occasion of its reconstruction in the middle of the Tenbun era (1532-1555). This work is the only large-scaled extant piece by Geiai with a clear provenance. Although the original seal was removed and later stamped with Shubun’s seal, the striking movement of the pine and peach trees and the camellias, as if blown by a cool breeze, clearly demonstrates Geiai’s style. The artist's intention probably was to express the movement of the wind.