Who painted Winter and Summer Flowers?

Winter and Summer Flowers was painted by Kaihō Yūshō in 1600.

Where can I see Winter and Summer Flowers?

Winter and Summer Flowers is held by Cleveland Museum of Art.

What movement is Winter and Summer Flowers?

Winter and Summer Flowers is associated with Renaissance.

Artwork

Winter and Summer Flowers

Kaihō Yūshō , 1600

Winter and Summer Flowers is an unspecified painting by the Renaissance artist Kaihō Yūshō. It dates from 1600 and is held in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The work consists of a pair of folding screens that together form a continuous landscape.

Accession no.: 1987.40
Credit line: John L. Severance Fund

About this work

You see two folding screens side by side, one with white camellias and a pine, the other with blue morning glories tangled in bamboo.

You see two folding screens side by side, one with white camellias and a pine, the other with blue morning glories tangled in bamboo.

The screens show flowers from different seasons, but the mountains and bridge make it feel like one landscape. Time moves from right to left, winter to summer. Yūshō painted these for Zen temples, where quiet details like this mattered.

If you like this, look up Japan, Momoyama period (1573–1615) next.

Overview

The work consists of a pair of folding screens that together form a continuous landscape. The right screen presents a pine tree under which white camellias blossom, while the left screen depicts blue morning glories winding through bamboo. Together they create a seamless view of mountains and a bridge, linking the two panels visually.

Subject & Meaning

The screens juxtapose flora associated with different seasons: the camellias represent winter, and the morning glories signify summer. The composition guides the viewer’s eye from right to left, suggesting a passage of time from the colder to the warmer months within a single, unified setting.

Technique & Style

Executed in the traditional Japanese screen format, the painting employs delicate brushwork to render the pine’s foliage, the camellias’ petals, and the tangled bamboo. The use of subtle color contrasts, white against dark pine and blue against green bamboo, highlights each seasonal element while maintaining overall harmony.

History & Provenance

The screens were created by the painter Kaihō Yūshō, who was active in the late Momoyama period. Yūshō is known for producing similar landscape screens for Zen temples in Kyoto, where such detailed, contemplative imagery was valued for meditation spaces.

Context

During the Momoyama era (1573–1615), folding screens served both decorative and functional roles in Japanese interiors, often marking partitions or providing visual backdrops. The seasonal motif aligns with Zen aesthetic principles that emphasize impermanence and the cyclical nature of the natural world.

Artist & collection

Artist

Kaihō Yūshō

Kaihō Yūshō (海北友松; 1533–1615); real name: Kaiho Shōeki, "brush name": Yusho (alternative names: Josetsusai, Yūkeisai, Yūtoku), was a Japanese painter of the Azuchi–Momoyama period.