池大雅　君子観月図　紙本墨画掛幅　江戸時代

Ike no Taiga painted not only the bamboos and landscapes for which he is best known but also figures, such as this scholar. The man’s bulbous nose, beard, and round knot of hair in the Chinese style all appear in the wide range of ink tones and brushstrokes characteristic of Taiga’s art. The scholar gazes at the moon, which rises over a gentle hill resembling Mount Mikasa. The pose and landscape recall a poem by Abe no Nakamaro (698–770 C.E.), a Japanese student who went to Tang China and never returned home: “When I gaze far out across the plain of heaven, I see the same moon that came up over the hill of Mikasa at Kasuga.” Taiga was likely paying deliberate homage to Nakamaro, as he shared the earlier artist’s love of Chinese art and culture.