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Farmer Returning Home in Autumn
Yosa Buson, 1781
In this hanging scroll of 1781, a farmer playfully scolds a crow that has come to eat his grain, while his water buffalo carefully makes its way across a fast stream. The Cleveland Museum of Art describes the scene as playful.
Yosa Buson was raised in what is now Osaka and went to Edo, now Tokyo, to learn how to write poetry. He later travelled around northeastern Japan in the footsteps of the poet Matsuo BashÅ and then taught poetry in Kyoto. He also painted for a living, and learned the skill from woodblock-printed Chinese painting manuals.
That mix of poet and painter shows in the scroll. It is ink and light colour on silk, about 131 by 46 centimetres for the painting alone.
From the museum record
| Artist | Yosa Buson |
|---|---|
| Date | 1781 |
| Medium | Hanging scroll; ink and light color on silk |
| Size | Overall: 203.2 x 59.2 cm |
| Museum | The Cleveland Museum of Art |
| Credit line | John L. Severance Fund |
| Accession number | 1970.77 |
| Licence | Open Access (CC0) |
Source: The Cleveland Museum of Art collection record. Facts such as dates, sizes and credit lines come from that record. The write-up above was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the museum record and standard references. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.
