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he painted a portrait of the ninth shogun, 83 Banana Tree in the night rain The painting was made on behalf of a
Ashikaga Yoshihisa (1465-1489). After the hanging scroll; ink on paper young monk of Nanzenji, Ikka Kenpu (fl.
young shogun died in a battle, a commem- 95.9 X 30.9 (373/4 X 121/8) 1410-1460). Later, poetic inscriptions were
orative portrait of Yoshihisa armed and Muromachi period, no later than 1410 added to the painting, imbuing it with
mounted on a horse was commissioned Agency for Cultural Affairs, Tokyo multiple meanings and making it into a
from Masanobu by Yoshihisa's mother, Important Cultural Property shigajiku (see cat. 84, 86, 91), or "poetry-
Tomiko. This latter painting, in full color painting scroll/' a favored format of the
on silk, is preserved at the Jizoin in Aichi A humble hut, set in a landscape of hills Muromachi period, particularly among
Prefecture. YS and a lake, is flanked by a pine tree on the Zen monk-litterateurs and their associates.
right and a banana tree on the left. On the Among those who inscribed it were:
opposite shore, water cascades into the twelve prominent Zen poet-monks; the
mist-covered lake, and a grove of willow Korean scholar and government envoy
trees emerges from the mist. It is autumn, Yang Su, who had come to Japan for the
as the bare tree branches indicate. inauguration of Ashikaga Yoshimochi (cat.
Splashes of dark ink around the banana 4) to the shogunal seat succeeding his fa-
tree and the willow trees suggest rainfall. ther Yoshimitsu, who had died two years
Fifteen inscriptions identify the theme. earlier; and Yamana Tokihiro (1367-1435), a
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