Paintings by Yosa Buson of the subject of rocks and bamboo are surprisingly scarce. In addition to this work, volume 6 of the anthology The Complete Works of Buson includes only two more examples: Rocks and Bamboo (painting section, cat. no. 182) and Ink Bamboo (collection of Myohoji; painting section, cat. no. 200). Rocks and bamboo are furthermore included as a detail in the folding screen Bamboo in the Wind (Kosaiji; painting section, cat. no. 19), painted during his stay in Tango province. The bamboo in this screen is swaying in the wind; indeed the artist often integrates bamboo into his compositions in a way that makes tangible the atmosphere that his landscapes are imbued with. Many of his works are titled Bamboo Forest Landscape.

In the landscapes of his latter years, Buson often uses motifs such as bamboo groves and Japanese farmhouses with straw-thatched roofs. For him, these motifs embodied the idea of the Japanese countryside. In a haiga painting, Young Bamboo (haiga section, cat. no. 38), Buson uses the abbreviated brush style commonly associated with haiga, gracefully delineating the bamboo’s leaves with short strokes. The representation of the bamboo in this work is also closer to that of the bamboo in the haiga genre than in more conventional rock and bamboo painting, partly because of the small size of the picture.

Stones and rocks are an important motif in Buson’s landscapes and paintings of historical figures, and he painted many of them even if they are not referenced in a work’s title. He also painted a fair amount of so-called taikoseki (ch. taihu stones), the symbol of a Chinese literati preoccupation with fantastically formed stones. Furthermore, Buson’s work may also reflect his reception of Chinese painting manuals of stones and rocks, given that some of his paintings exclusively focus on them. One of these works, Rocks and Stones (Itsuo Museum of Art; painting section, cat. no. 414), features an inscription in Chinese praising the rocks of Wakanoura, then adding the lines “In our country, there are only few as refined as [the painter and poet] Mi Fu. We should lament this.” The painting underscores Buson’s passion for the aesthetics of rocks. Like bamboo, he also painted rocks in his haiga. In Yanagi-chiri (Itsuo Museum of Art; haiga section, cat. no. 117), countless ordinary rocks rumble along at the bottom of a riverbed. The rocks in the present work are not particularly eccentric. Their shapes almost remind the backs of the legendary monks Kanzan and Jittoku, and just like in many of Buson’s works they are complemented with a few smaller stones.

The signature reads “Shain Setsudo ni oite utsusu” (Shain [= Buson] painted this at the Snow Hall). This points towards the time around the second month of An’ei 10 (1781), when Buson was known to combine the artist name “Shain” with the place name “Setsudo.” Since Buson died in Tenmei 3 (1783) at the age of 68, it is one of his late works. The motifs are skillfully painted as if flowing straight from the tip of his brush.

This work was included in the auction Shichiseki-o iaihin tenkan in 1937. “Shichiseki-o” refers to Yukawa Gen’yo, nowadays best known as the adoptive father of Yukawa Hideki, a Nobel laureate in physics. The mounting is still the same as in the photograph in the auction catalog, but the vertically striped brocade surrounding the actual work resembles the design of curtains for theatre plays. If that was intentional it reaffirms Buson’s interest in theatre.

Yosa Buson (haiku poet, painter; 1716–1783)
Haiku poet and painter of the mid-Edo period from Settsu Province (near modern Osaka). Buson studied haiku poetry under the master Yahantei Soa. Incorporating elements from various schools, Buson established his own manner of painting inspired by ancient and contemporary Chinese paintings and imported painting albums. As a leader of the second wave of Japanese literati painting in the mid-18th century, and together with his contemporary Ike no Taiga, he counts as one of the genre’s most influential proponents.