Uragami Gyokudo was a literati painter born into a samurai family in the Bizen Okayama domain during the mid-Edo period. He loved poetry, calligraphy, and painting, and particularly pioneered his own unique style in ink painting.
He began painting in his forties and mastered techniques that created a soft, blurred effect through the use of brushstrokes, often employing fudekusa (Japanese sedge). In this work, he depicts a tranquil landscape where the sharpness of the trees and the freshness of the mountain air are conveyed through the texture of his brushwork.
This may well represent the very landscape of Gyokudo's inner world. The spirit of a man who rejected the path of a professional painter and chose instead the free brush of a literati quietly emerges in this single masterpiece.