Ōno Bakufū (1890–1976) 
Autumn Colors at Diamond Mountains 
Japan, c. 1926–1976 
Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper 
Gift of Terry Welch, 2021 (2021-03-098)

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The Diamond Mountains are in North Korea. They have long been admired for their dramatic peaks and rock formations, which were an important subject for Korean artists as they began to move away from an exclusive focus on idealized Chinese landscapes and instead showed “true views” of Korea during the 18th–19th centuries. 
 
In 1905 Japan forced Korea to become a protectorate; in 1910 the last Korean emperor was deposed, and Korea was officially annexed. Japan would continue to control the Korean peninsula until 1945, and it was an important staging zone for the invasions of Manchuria and China. Prior to the military activity of the 1930s, the annexation led to a fascination for Korean art and culture in Japan, and Korean subjects became part of the repertoire of Japanese artists. 
 
Here Bakufū shows a Korean scholar, identifiable by his distinctive black woven horsehair hat, sitting with a servant at the side of a stream. They are surrounded by autumn foliage at its peak, beyond which a distinctive granite cliff rises precipitously. Bakufū’s dense composition and strong emphasis on bold colors are characteristic of innovations to the genre of landscape painting during the 1920s.