Kakemono Mountain Landscape in Mist by Kubota Beisen

Rugged mountain ranges rising out of a sea of mist – this landscape lives from the interplay between clearly contoured rock formations and the soft, blurred ink washes of the haze between them.

The hanging scroll bears the signature and seal of Kubota Beisen (1852–1906), a painter known for combining traditional sumi-e technique with a view of space and depth already shaped by Western influences. In this work, this is evident in the carefully graduated pictorial depth that leads the viewer layer by layer into the distance. The scroll is delivered including a wooden box in which it can be stored protected from light and moisture. Such mountain landscapes have always been regarded in Japanese aesthetics as a place of retreat for mind and contemplation, and fit well into calm, contemplative living spaces.