Mountain Path by the River by YOKOI KINKOKU 横井金谷 (1761–1832)

Edo period (1615-1868), early 19th century

This kakejiku (掛 け 軸, hanging scroll) depicts a tranquil landscape characteristic of Yokoi Kinkoku, a Jōdo monk and celebrated practitioner of the Shugendō ascetic tradition. Rendered with the artist’s speckled dots and energetic, overlapping brushstrokes, the scene depicts an old man with a cane gently leading a child along a rocky path. Light touches of blue and green wash among the trees suggest a lush summer atmosphere, balancing the ruggedness of the looming mountain above. Kinkoku’s style is deeply indebted to his spiritual immersion in the wilderness; his mountains reminiscent of the jagged peaks he traversed during pilgrimages. In this composition, although the landscape is the dominant force, the inclusion of the figures reinforces the bunjin (文 人, literati) ideal of man in harmony with nature. The work bears the artist’s signature and seal and makes testament to his lifelong obsession with the expressive power of ink.

The scroll is accompanied by a wooden tomobako (storage box) featuring an inscription by Aimi Kōu (1874–1970), a renowned 20th-century scholar of Japanese painting. This provenance highlights the enduring importance of Kinkoku’s work within the canon of Japanese literati art.

YOKOI KINKOKU 横井金谷 (1761–1832)
Yokoi Kinkoku (also known as Yokoi Kanaya; 1763–1830) was an eccentric and highly individual bunjin (literati) painter, haiku poet, calligrapher, seal engraver, and potter active in the late Edo period. Born in Ōmi Province (present-day Shiga Prefecture), he entered Buddhist life at a young age and became abbot of Gokuraku-ji in his early twenties, taking the name Kinkoku from a mountain near Kyoto. Restless, unconventional, and repeatedly at odds with monastic discipline, he led an itinerant life that took him across Edo, Kyoto, Nagasaki, and Nagoya, supporting himself through painting and religious commissions. His extraordinary life is unusually well documented through his own autobiography, Kinkoku Dōjin Go-ichidai Ki. Around 1800, he embraced Shugendō , an ascetic movement blending Shinto, Taoism, and esoteric Buddhism. Central to this practice was the spiritual “conquest” of holy mountains as a metaphor for enlightenment. In 1809, following a rigorous ascent of Mount Ōmine, he was awarded the prestigious title Hōin-daisendatsu (Grand Master of the Seal of the Law), an honor he wore with immense pride, incorporating “Hōin” into his signatures thereafter.

Kinkoku is renowned for his landscape paintings in the nanga tradition, marked by rugged brushwork, expressive ink handling, and an unpolished immediacy that reflects both his ascetic practices and unrestrained temperament. Deeply influenced by Yosa Buson, whom he revered, he was later nicknamed the “Buson of Ōmi,” though his style is generally rougher and more volatile. He was also known for humorous portrait paintings of poets accompanied by their verses, as well as for works that fuse painting, poetry, and calligraphy into a single expressive act. After joining the syncretic Shugendō movement around 1800, he devoted his later life to mountain asceticism; the fantastically fractured peaks and remote landscapes of this period are considered his most powerful and distinctive works.

Kinkoku’s paintings are held today in major Japanese museum and temple collections, as well as in important private collections in Japan and abroad, where they are valued for their rarity, autobiographical intensity, and direct connection to Edo-period literati culture. For collectors, his work offers an especially compelling combination of artistic originality, historical depth, and an unusually vivid personal narrative, making him one of the most singular figures in late Edo nanga painting.