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Noro Kaiseki, 1747-1828
The Red Cliff under Clouds and Mountains
Ink on silk
The Red Cliff
is a long prose poem written by Su Shi (1037-1101), a Chinese
Confucian official opposed to reforms that would have stripped
the Confucian scholar class of its independence. He was imprisoned,
tried, and exiled to a remote village along the Yangzi River
where established an estate and often entertained artists, poets,
and other like-minded literati. The theme of the poem is one
of exile followed by retreat into the cultivated values of the
Confucian scholar class. This painting depicts the Red Cliff,
a scenic spot along the river where Su would often visit with
his guests.
The Red Cliff theme was extremely popular
among Japanese bunjinga painters working in the mid-eighteenth
century. Ike no Taiga, one of Kaiseki's early teachers, depicted
this theme on a pair of folding screens. Kaiseki's fanciful conception
of the landscape is in keeping with bunjinga treatments
of this theme.
Ackland Art Museum, The University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Gift of Ruth and Sherman Lee;
97.20.4
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