Japan, Muromachi period (1392–1573) / c. 1525
Susuki Grass
The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogs Susuki Grass as painting (Japan, Muromachi period (1392–1573) · c. 1525).
The botanical name for susuki grass is miscanthus.
A CLOSER LOOK
The museum identifies this painting as Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, color, and gold on paper.
The museum's collection notes: Susuki grass has a seasonal association with autumn in the Japanese visual and literary tradition. It is one of the “Seven Flowers of Autumn,” along with bush clover, arrowroot, pink, patrinia , mistflower, and bellflower. This composition immerses the beholder in a field of grasses and golden bands of mist. The design may have served as a backdrop for poems brushed in ink on decorated papers and attached to the surface of the screens, a practice with a long tradition in Japan.
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE
The Cleveland Museum of ArtSusuki GrassOriginal explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.