Landscape with Tower 

Ike no Taiga created Landscape with Tower in eighteenth century Japan using ink and color on gilded paper. This six-panel screen embodies a fascination with Chinese culture, and we can see the ways that art circulated across borders in the early modern period. Here, the artist evokes a Chinese literati painting. Literati were scholar-officials who prized artistic cultivation. The imagined landscape, with its cultivated gardens and population of learned men, speaks to the social aspirations of Taiga and his circle, who sought to elevate the status of painting in Japan. The artist also belonged to a circle of intellectuals who looked to the past to critique contemporary society. By exploring this historical context, we can better understand the politics of taste and the public role of art in eighteenth century Japan. Research into literati culture and the institutions that promoted certain kinds of art helps us to interpret this landscape as more than just a scene.