Image: 周茂叔愛蓮図-Zhou Maoshu Admiring Lotuses MET DP-12232-283

Description: A bearded scholar props his elbows on the side of his boat and rests his chin in his hands, leaning over to catch a glimpse of lotuses scattered across the surface of a pond. He is recognizable as the Northern Song-dynasty philosopher Zhou Maoshu (Chinese: Zhou Dunyi, 1017–1073). A leading figure in early neo-Confucian thought, Zhou wrote, among other texts, the short essay “On the Love of the Lotus” (“Ai lian shuo”), in which he describes the lotus as a “man of virtue,” in contrast to the “hermitlike” chrysanthemum and the “aristocratic” peony. After the death of his father, Kaihō Yūshō (1533–1615), Yūsetsu operated a shop selling readymade pictures under the name “Chūzaemon.” Later, he received patronage of Tokugawa Iemitsu, the third shogun, and reverted to using the family name Kaihō.
Title: 周茂叔愛蓮図
Credit: This file was donated to Wikimedia Commons as part of a project by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. See the Image and Data Resources Open Access Policy
Author: Creator:Kaihō Yūsetsu
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