The Four Accomplishments (late 1500s–early 1600s): Art, History and Details

The Four Accomplishments (late 1500s–early 1600s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Kano Shōei (Japanese, 1519–1592).

The work and its context

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

This is one of a pair of screens that shows a group of elite Chinese gentlemen and their servants in the countryside. One man looks on as two of his companions play a board game. Nearby is a table set with a selection of books and a qin, a type of stringed instrument, still wrapped in its cloth case, waiting to be played. The mood is one of enjoyment balanced with formality. Historically, playing the qin or qi (a game similar to chess called go in Japan), and practicing or admiring calligraphy were considered three skills essential for cultured men in China.

Object facts

• Title: The Four Accomplishments
• Date: late 1500s–early 1600s
• Creator attribution: Kano Shōei (Japanese, 1519–1592)
• Culture: Japan, Momoyama period (1573–1615)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: One of a pair of six-panel folding screens; ink and slight color on paper
• Dimensions: Painting: 153 x 358.6 cm (60 1/4 x 141 3/16 in.); Mounted: 174 x 378.5 cm (68 1/2 x 149 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Folding screen
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1979.46.1

A detail from the museum

One of the servants is diverted by the motion of a fish in the water.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1979." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 67, no. 3 (March 1980): 58–99.
• Lee, Sherman E., Michael R. Cunningham, and Ursula Korneitchouk. One Thousand Years of Japanese Art (650-1650): From the Cleveland Museum of Art: Catalogue. New York: Japan Society, 1981.
• Cunningham, Michael R. “Byōbu: The Art of the Japanese Screen.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 71, no. 7 (September 1984): 222–232.

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.