Farmer Returning Home in Autumn
Details
- Author / creator
- Yosa Buson (Japanese, 1716–1783)
- Object type
- Painting
- Date or period
- 1781
- Dimensions summary
- Overall: 203.2 × 59.2 cm; Painting only: 130.8 × 46.2 cm
- Maker or workshop
- Yosa Buson
- Period / style
- Edo period
- Place of origin
- Japan
- Acquisition method
- Purchase
- Credit line
- Purchased with the National Heritage Memorial Fund, 1970
About this object
Here, Yosa Buson’s farmer playfully chastises a crow who has come to dine on his grain while his water buffalo earnestly negotiates a swift stream. Raised in what is now Osaka, Buson went to Edo (now Tokyo) to study poetry composition. He later traveled around northeastern Japan, following in the footsteps of poet Matsuo Bashō (松尾芭蕉) (1644–1694), and then taught poetry in Kyoto. He painted professionally, a skill he learned by using wood-block–printed Chinese painting manuals.
Materials and technique
Hanging scroll; ink and light color on silk
Signature and marks
Artist's signature: 六十五翁謝寅寫. Romanization: Rokujūgo [no] okina, Sha In [kore wo] utsusu. (“The sixty-five-year-old elder Sha In painted [this].”); Artist's seals. Upper: 謝長庚印. Lower: 春星. (“Upper seal: seal of Sha Chōko. Romanization: Sha Chōko in. Lower seal: Shunsei. Romanization: Shunsei (lit. Spring Star)”)
