Fisherman returning home

Goshun was a leading exponent of the literati or 'nanga' school - one of the major schools of Japanese painting in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Goshun wrote 'haiku' poems and his interpretations of the 'nanga' style are distinguished by their poetry and lyricism. In subject, this painting follows the literati tradition of travellers in a landscape. The lone figure of the fisherman seems disproportionately large, asserting a native Japanese tendency to depict man at one with nature, not overwhelmed by the enormity of the cosmos, the response evoked by many of the Chinese prototypes of this style. This painting shows the 'nanga' delight in delicate surface patterns and subtle, seductive colourings. The fisherman with his straw cape, the pair of ducks and roughly thatched hut underscore the serene, rustic mood of the composition. The painting is regarded as a product of Goshun's mature phase. It was executed in Ikeda (in present day Osaka Prefecture) where Goshun was sent to recover emotionally from the unexpected deaths of both his wife and his father. Goshun stayed at Ikeda from 1781 to 1786 and the work he produced there is regarded as the best of his mature 'nanga' style.

'Asian Art', AGNSW Collections, 1994, pg. 220