Description
On a late summer evening, gourds hang from a bamboo trellis beside a humble hut. A poor family of three sits on a straw mat, quietly gazing at the moon as they cool themselves. Each element — the outlines of the figures, the moon, the bamboo poles — is rendered using different brush techniques, showcasing the artist’s skill. It is a quiet moment of relaxation after a day of labor, yet there seems to be an air of sadness.
Morikage was a renowned 17th-century painter who served the shogun. However, his son was exiled for misconduct, and his daughter reportedly abandoned him. Looking at this painting, one is tempted to imagine that Morikage depicted an imagined scene of himself with his family relaxing quietly on a summer evening.
Data source
ColBase
"ColBase: Integrated Collections Database of the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan" is a service that enables a multi-database search of the collections in the four national museums (To...
Contents holder/Provider
Aggregator
National Institutes for Cultural Heritage
The National Institutes for Cultural Heritage (NICH) comprise four National Museums (Tokyo National Museum, Kyoto National Museum, Nara National Museum, and Kyushu National Museum) and two National Research Institutes for Cultural Properties (Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, and Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties), as well as the International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI) in Sakai City, for a total of seven institutions.
Last updated
July 20, 2026