Landscape: Lake Biwa
Maruyama Okyo 円山応挙 (1733-1795)
18th century
Classification
Painting
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Accession Number
F1907.643
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
Charles Lang Freer collectionEdo period (1615 - 1868)JapanJapanese Artkakemonolandscapewater
About this artwork
Okyo’s simplified view of Lake Biwa--the shoreline, a few hills, and small islands--is rendered in an imaginative, playful style of brushwork. This image presents a visual play on the name biwa, an ancient Chinese musical instrument that was adopted in Japan. The sketch exaggerates the lute-like shape of the lake, which spreads from a narrow “neck” at its southern end near Kyoto to a wide oval “body” at the north.