A six-panel folding screen (byôbu)

Description:

Japan, Edo period
172 x 370 cm
Six-panel folding screen. Ink, slight colour and gold on paper. Depicting a river landscape with pine trees and other foliage. A scholar is seated in the shade of a pine tree, while another figure accompanied by an ox is shown on the riverbank in the foreground. The scene may represent the two legendary Chinese recluses Shufu and Xu You. According to legend, Xu You washed his ears in the Ying River after Emperor Yao offered him rulership over the Nine Provinces. Shufu, who happened to be leading his ox to the river to drink, is said to have turned the animal upstream, unwilling to let it drink from water supposedly contaminated by the washing. The episode serves as a symbol of the resolute rejection of worldly power and the pursuit of moral purity.
Old European private collection - Traces of age, slightly rest.