Figure Mooring a Boat

Kannan is a little-known painter of the Kanto region. Close inspection of this quiet scene suggests that it represents the “night rain over Xiao and Xiang” scene from the Eight Views of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers. The style of the painting is similar to some works from Korea; as Japanese and Korean monk-painters traveled back and forth between one another’s monastic communities during the 1400s and 1500s, Kannan surely had the opportunity to consider incorporating Korean stylistic features into his work.