#yosabuson

Yosa Buson.

Creación digital: MAVi.

Sound of Cold Air, Yosa Buson, 18th century, Minneapolis Institute of Art: Japanese and Korean Art

large, bold angular calligraphy with curved, wispy brush strokes Size: 49 11/16 × 12 11/16 in. (126.21 × 32.23 cm) (image) 68 7/8 × 18 1/16 in. (174.94 × 45.88 cm) (mount, without roller) Medium: Ink on paper

Crows in an Old Tree, Yosa Buson, 18th century, Minneapolis Institute of Art: Japanese and Korean Art

five crows perched near top of tree; two are darting down at LL; minimal, curled leaves with light color Seven raucous crows flit in and around an old tree at dusk, a scene all too common in autumn and winter. In Japanese poetry and painting, crows have long served as signs of the arrival of winter (the autumn season is suggested in this painting by the pink highlights on the tree’s leaves), and, by extension, death. One old folk belief is that a crow’s call may signal the death of someone nearby. Another says that a crow’s call at night is an omen of a fire. This can make them a somewhat gloomy motif, as in the famous haiku by Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694), who, like Yosa Buson himself, was a widely celebrated poet: “Crows resting / on a withered branch— / evening in autumn.” Here, though, Buson’s loose, energetic brushwork lends the scene a sense of liveliness. Size: 42 5/8 × 16 1/4 in. (108.27 × 41.28 cm) (image) 74 3/16 × 21 5/8 in. (188.44 × 54.93 cm) (mount, without roller) Medium: Ink on paper

Evening Landscape with Traveler, Yosa Buson, second half 18th century, Minneapolis Institute of Art: Japanese and Korean Art

large, sloping black rock formation, highlighted with pink, in distance; grove of pine trees lines a narrow path on flat, black rocks; man in white with hat on back and pole over shoulder walks down path at LR; water at L and UR; inscription ULQ Size: 26 5/8 × 17 5/8 in. (67.63 × 44.77 cm) (image) 57 1/2 × 18 5/16 in. (146.05 × 46.51 cm) (mount, without roller) Medium: Ink and light color on paper

Three Laughers of Tiger Ravine, Yosa Buson, second half 18th century, Minneapolis Institute of Art: Japanese and Korean Art

three men, one with a knotty cane, stand under a tree near a rock conversing and gesturing The scene depicted here—three Chinese men laughing heartily—represents the climax of an ancient Chinese Buddhist parable known as “Three Laughers of Tiger Ravine,” which teaches that one must push boundaries in the pursuit of understanding. The story tells of an imagined meeting of three Chinese religious and cultural luminaries. The man with a large walking staff at left is Huiyuan (334–416), a Buddhist monk who established the famed Donglin Monastery on Mount Lu in 386. Huiyuan had taken a vow to never cross over a certain bridge spanning a gully known as Tiger Ravine, a symbolic barrier between the sacred space of his mountain monastery and the mundane world beyond. One day he invited two friends to Donglin—that’s the celebrated Confucian poet Tao Yuanming (365–427) in the middle and the Daoist priest Lu Xiujing (406–477) at right. When Huiyuan went to see his friends off at the end of a long day of talking and drinking wine, he inadvertently crossed over the bridge at Tiger Ravine—part of the bridge can be seen in the lower right corner of this picture. Realizing that Huiyuan had broken his vow, the three men broke into laugher. Size: 44 3/4 × 20 in. (113.67 × 50.8 cm) (image) 77 × 28 3/4 in. (195.58 × 73.03 cm) (with roller) Medium: Ink and color on silk

Letter with Poem for Kitō, Yosa Buson, 1774, Minneapolis Institute of Art: Japanese and Korean Art

20 irregular, somewhat slanting lines of cursive; mounted on cream colored paper with blue border; outer mount is textured, distressed paper plain light wooden box; white label one end; Clark label and black vinyl sticker opposite Size: 6 1/4 × 8 5/8 in. (15.88 × 21.91 cm) (image) 46 9/16 × 12 in. (118.27 × 30.48 cm) (mount, without roller) Medium: Ink on paper

Sea in Spring, Yosa Buson, 18th century, Minneapolis Institute of Art: Japanese and Korean Art

small figure seated in profile on a rock formation amid grasses; figure looking up to R at a bluff with coiling, windblown grasses; loopy inscription above that mimics the shape of grasses Size: 10 3/4 × 9 1/4 in. (27.31 × 23.5 cm) (image) 42 1/2 × 15 1/4 in. (107.95 × 38.74 cm) (mount, without roller) Medium: Ink and light color on paper