Kakemono Set of Three Paintings – Fuji, Yoshino and Arashiyama

Three scrolls, three of Japan's most famous landscapes: in the middle rises Fuji, pale and snow-capped above a hazy shore, with only a few dark rocks and a single boat to anchor the expanse. To the left and right, Yoshino and Arashiyama answer it – a wooded hill with temple roofs among glowing red trees, and a broad river with a long wooden bridge, pines, blossoming trees and boats.

All three pictures are painted on silk with delicate color and plenty of water; the contours dissolve into the mist, so that side by side the scrolls read as a single, continuous space. The Fuji scroll bears a signature with the addition “aged 77,” Yōsai, and a seal; signatures and label name Kikuchi Yōsai, the history painter who bound himself to no school and studied several styles side by side.

The set dates from the Edo period. Each scroll measures 49 × 182 cm and is mounted in the same way, in green silk and blue brocade with peony tendrils, with jikusaki made of bone. The three scrolls are kept together in one wooden box – a set of three such as is traditionally hung in the tokonoma on festive occasions.