The inscription on this work, a couplet presumably composed by Buson himself, reads: the trail of a horse scatters in the beautiful woods, telling that the neighbor has headed for the inn. In this work, a few dots are painted on the ground of a path between two trees. They must be the trail of the horse, the figure perhaps the neighbor’s attendant. The profile of the attendant is similar to a figure in Buson’s six-panel folding screens Twelve Immortals. Another example, A Servant Waiting for the Master, included in Buson zenshu (Complete works of Buson) volume 6 resembles to this work. In the former, the seven-character quatrain composed by Buson describes that a young boy leans on a door between pine and oak trees, waiting for the return of his master from the pastime. Yet, instead of a door, the scene depicts a young boy leaning against the pine and oak trees placed one behind the other. Both paintings favor the suggestive haiga aesthetics, which creates a haiku-like lightness rather than a visualization of a poem. The present work’s signature, “Sha Choko,” is same as that of A Servant Waiting for the Master, which was dated 1761, inferring that this work was made around the same time. Besides, this work is relatively extensive in scale. It emphasizes the figure in the foreground and leaves the background with no landscape, which reminds the viewers of the works of Zhang Lu, the Chinese painter active in Ming dynasty. Buson might acquaint himself with this kind of Chinese paintings. Among the trees, Buson applied thin ink wash on the background, resulting in a cloud-like pattern. This work accompanies a box with a title: Keizan uyo-no-zu, or Mountains and streams after rain. Perhaps it was the interpretation of the unknown writer of the title on the box, who took the ink wash as clouds after rain.

Yosa Buson (haiku poet, painter; 1716–1783)
Also known as Saicho, Yahantei, Shimei, Choso, Choko, Shunsei, Shain, etc.
Settsu-born haiku poet and painter in mid Edo period. Learned haiku composition under Yahantei Soa. Established his individual painting style upon studying from different schools, Chinese paintings and imported painting albums. Active together with his contemporary, Ike no Taiga.