Caption:
The Four Accomplishments left of a pair, second half 19th century, Shibata Zeshin, Japanese, 1807 - 1891, 60 1/8 × 140 5/8 in. (152.72 × 357.19 cm) (image), Ink, color, and gold leaf on paper, Japan, 19th century, This pair of screens shows fashionable youths in the pleasure quarters enjoying the so-called Four Elegant Accomplishments: music, the board game go, calligraphy, and painting. Music is represented by the women and blind elderly man in the left screen. A go board appears in the far right panel. Nearby, books, scrolls, and writing implementscollectively representing calligraphyhave been laid out for figures who surround a low black-lacquer desk. Some of them turn to admire a pair of folding-screen paintings depicting Chinese landscapes.