The Four Accomplishments (c. 1620–50): Art, History and Details

The Four Accomplishments (c. 1620–50) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Iwasa Matabei (Japanese, 1578–1650).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This painting shows a woman playing a koto, a type of stringed instrument; a pair playing a board game called Go; a man deep in a book; and a boy painting an image of flowers. The group of fashionably dressed figures is set in and around a cozy residence, their poses conveying a sense of carefree pleasure. The scene is a playful response to a theme derived from Chinese culture that presents four notable pastimes of well-educated people.

Object facts

• Title: The Four Accomplishments
• Date: c. 1620–50
• Creator attribution: Iwasa Matabei (Japanese, 1578–1650)
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Hanging scroll; ink, color, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Painting: 115.9 x 51.3 cm (45 5/8 x 20 3/16 in.); Mounted: 211.1 x 64 cm (83 1/8 x 25 3/16 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1985.269

A detail from the museum

The small, golden jar holds water to mix with the youth's ink for his painting.

Collection credit

The Kelvin Smith Collection, given by Mrs. Kelvin Smith

Further reading listed by the museum

• "Shading related to 'Making beads' by Katsushige Iwasa." Kokka 國華 v. 58, no. 691 (October 1949).
• Nippon Bijutsu Kaiga Zenshu [Complete Collection of Japanese Paintings] v. 13 Iwasa Matabe. Tokyo: Shueisha, 1980.
• “Checklist of the Kelvin Smith Bequest.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 75, no. 7 (September 1988): 292–295.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.