What will first catch your eye in the Japanese Painting gallery in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City is the iceberg blue silky background of Maejima Sôjû’s “Landscape.” Sôjû uses formal elements, such as color, size and scale to show how nature’s significance and power triumphs over man in a comparison executed through a contrast between large static cliffs and miniscule figures.
Sôjû’s use of ink varies to allow for an element of distance and depth in the painting, which makes the scene look life-like. While mountains closer in the foreground are outlined with a thick black contour line, mountains farther away in the background are outlined thinly, to show distance. The mountains look more real due to the illusion of distance, because the depth defies the flatness of the paper. The fact that the mountains look real makes them appear more sturdy and impressive.
The only humans in the painting are three figures shown in a small boat in the lower left region of the river. By way of contrast, the small size of the figures accentuates the grandeur of the prodigious cliffs in the background. Due to the sublimity with which the cliffs are depicted, specifically their thick contour lines that create sharp, steep edges and the trees that miraculously grow out at every imaginable angle from the escarpments render the humans insignificant compared to their majestic surroundings. Furthermore, the small boat and hut are overpowered by the steady, motionless cliffs.
Moreover, the power of nature is so evident that mist seems to be acting as the painting’s main protagonist. A grand total of four mountains emerge from the mist itself (two mountains in the distance and two prominently closer to the foreground). The fluidity of the mist evokes motion and movement, which is attributed to the soft calligraphic contour lines of the mist clouds. In addition to its use as a tool to enhance nature’s magnificent qualities, the mist is also used to create a sense of space and distance in the painting, as it separates mountains in the background and foreground.
Nature’s dominant significance in the painting is reinforced by the presence of a small hut that is diminutive in comparison to the large cliffs that tower above it. Sôjû’s attention to nature in the painting outweighs the attention to human life and civilization, as seen by the use of color and the amount of space devoted to each realm. The pine trees are painted with a deep green pigment that makes them stand out against the ink monochrome cliffs, while the figures in the river boat feature light colors that are pale compared to the vivid green of the pines. Additionally, in terms of space, the sheer majesty of nature is evoked by the size of the cliffs and the large number of pines, compared to the figures that are so small that they feature just enough detail to render them recognizable as humans.
Sôjû’s “Landscape” uses depth, color, scale, and mist to represent the sublimity of nature compared to the relative insignificance of man. The mountains are distinguished in the painting as seen by their grand size and the vivid green pigment on the trees that adorn them. Depth is used to make the scene look more real, therefore accentuating the grandeur of the cliffs. Mist contributes power to the iconography of nature through its impressive and active quality of movement. Finally, the greatness of the cliffs is undeniable because of their size in comparison to the tiny riverboat that almost blends into the river as one of the shallow, flat rocks of the same shape and with the same coloring. Sôjû uses this painting to represent nature as a more powerful and important entity compared to man.
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