Seventy-Two Peaks Under the Blue Sky with Mount Furong

The seventy-two peaks of China’s Mount Heng appear on a low Japanese screen. Matsumura Goshun painted it in 1785. The sacred mountain was associated with Buddhist and Daoist traditions as well as poetry. The artist offers an experience of a renowned distant place indoors, probably in a tea gathering space suited to such a low partition.

Dark mountain outlines emerge against a silver band. Their heights change gradually, leading the eye along the screen as along a horizon. The narrow format does not demand that the mountain be grasped at once. It offers successive nearby impressions to someone seated beside it or shifting position in the room.

A broad gold field lies above the peaks. The title speaks of a blue sky, although no blue paint appears. Words and the viewer’s imagination supply the colour. The reflective surface holds the room’s actual light, making the distant sky change with its immediate surroundings.

Ink lines cross the boundary between gold and silver. The mountain remains continuous across a change of material. The painter combines expressive brush movement with the decorative clarity of broad bands. A natural view becomes a rhythm organizing the object’s extended surface.

The final peaks approach the inscription at the right. It names Furong Peak within the Heng range. A specific name connects the landscape with geography and literary memory. For a viewer familiar with Chinese poetry, that detail could prompt a personal sequence of lines and associations.

Vertical joins divide the image into eight panels. When the screen is set up, they alter reflection angles and distances between mountain groups. The landscape depends on the object’s construction. Its space arises through drawing, folds and light, with a seated viewer becoming part of this changing environment.

Goshun studied with the poet-painter Buson; the museum suggests that this screen relates to a late work by his teacher. Familiarity with Chinese poetry helped a Japanese viewer recognize the distant mountain. Yet the setting in which it appeared was entirely local. The golden sky reflected the room’s light, and panels folded at different angles changed the mountain range’s outline.