Landscape with the poets Tao Yuanming and Lin Hejing, one of a pair

This pair of screens depicts two well-known Chinese poets in landscape settings. The right screen shows Tao Yuanming (365–427) and the left includes Lin Hejing (967–1028). By placing the poets in similarly painted landscapes, Unkoku Togan made a connection between them even though they lived centuries apart. These two men symbolize the idealized hermit lifestyle, which has been a favorite Zen Buddhist subject in ink painting since Japan’s Muromachi period (1392–1573).

Tao Yuanming gazes at Mount Nanshan in Shaanxi province from his hut while enjoying wine. In retirement, Tao moved to the country to seek his true nature. This screen depicts the scene described in his most famous poem on the subject of chrysanthemums.

Lin Hejing led an ideal life of seclusion in the Gu Mountains behind West Lake in Hangzhou. He kept a crane as his companion and loved plum trees. In this screen, a child servant points to a crane in flight, which symbolizes the auspicious bird on which Daoist immortals ride through sky. Plum trees, symbols of refined character, are found by the buildings on the left section of the screen.

The Japanese painter Togan trained in Kyoto under Kano Eitoku (1543–1590) or Eitoku’s father, Shoei (1519–1592). He then became the official painter for the feudal lord Mori Terumoto (1553–1625). Terumoto ordered Togan to copy a landscape handscroll by the great Japanese painting master and Zen monk, Sesshu Toyo (1420–1506). Terumoto was so impressed by the copy that he gave Togan the original scroll and allowed him to live in Sesshu’s former studio. The rocks and trees portrayed in this pair of screens are inspired by Sesshu.

Togan was born as Hara Jihei, the second son of the lord of Nogomi Castle in Hizen province (today’s Saga prefecture). He later changed his name to Unkoku Togan to honor Sesshu. Togan took "Unkoku" from the name Sesshu gave to his studio, and he took the "To" in "Togan" from Sesshu’s religious name, "Toyo." After mastering Sesshu’s painting techniques, Togan became one of the leading painting masters of the Momoyama period (1573–1615) and established the Unkoku painting school, which continued for over 260 years until 1868.

This pair of screens was once in the Imperial Household Collection. They were left as a bequest from Dowager Empress Shoken (1849–1914) to Prince Fushimi Hiroyasu (1875–1946) in 1914.

This pair of screens was once in the Imperial Household Collection. They were left as a bequest from Dowager Empress Shoken (1849–1914) to Prince Fushimi Hiroyasu (1875–1946) in 1914. Mr. Ishii Gunji owned the pair in 1954. (Fujikake Shizuya, "Unkoku Togan hitsu Toenmei Rinnasei-zu," Kokka 750 (September 1954): 266). Avery Brundage purchased the screens from Yamanaka and Co. in 1958.