Landscape of the four seasons, two

Spread across this folding screen is a quiet winter scene, part of a larger set that traced the changing seasons through Japanese landscape painting. Shikibu Terutada worked in the mid-1500s during the Muromachi period, an era when ink painting flourished thanks to the influence of Zen Buddhism and Chinese models. You can see snow resting on the jagged peaks at the left, while a small thatched hut sits tucked among the rocks. The wide stretch of misty water in the center pulls your eye toward distant mountains that fade softly into the warm, aged paper.

The technique here is suiboku, or ink wash painting, where black ink is thinned with water to create everything from dark crisp lines to pale ghostly washes. Terutada was connected to the Kenkō Shōkei school of painters, and his style leans on Chinese landscape traditions that Japanese artists admired and adapted. Notice how much of the picture is left empty. That open space is not laziness but a deliberate choice, giving the scene a sense of calm and letting the viewer imagine the cold quiet of a snowy day by the water.