Description
The seals reading “Shikibu” used to be pronounced as “Ryukyo” and used to be identified with those of the artists Shokei or Chuan Shinko, although that was not correct. The personal history of this artist is not clear. Only an approximate period of his activity can be assumed from the year of Priest Joan Ryusu's death (1536), who was the 262nd priest of Kennin-ji Temple. The priest wrote an inscription on Shikibu's other extant painting, “Eight Views of Mt. Fuji”. Complicated strokes depicting the creases of the rocks indicate that the artist belonged to the Kamakura School, which followed the painting style of Shokei, while the strict composition of the scene shows the influence from the Kano school. Personified facial expressions of the monkeys are cute.
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