2-733-238 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Landscape of the Four Seasons, early 1500s. Yi Sumun is a Korean painter who moved to Japan in 1424 at the age of 20. Yi’s style likely represents the Yuanti school of royal court painting during the early Ming period. This pair of screens is the artist’s most important composition in this format and is smaller in scale than the average Japanese screen ( byobu ). Viewed from right to left, the screens show the passage of the four seasons, a popular theme in medieval Japanese ink painting.