Fūsuidō 風水洞

Keywords
Art History
Painting

Ch: Fengshuidong. Lit. the wind and water caves. A grotto complex near Hangzhou 杭州 which was the subject of poems by Su Dongpo (Jp: *So Tōba 蘇東坡, 1036-1101) and adopted as a pictorial theme. In 1073, when traveling from Hangzhou where he was an official, Su arranged to visit the famous Wind and Water Caves and spend several days there writing poetry with his young friend Li Jietui (Jp: Ri Sessui 李節推). No Chinese paintings of the theme are extant, but it was painted in Japan from the Momoyama period. *Kano-ha 狩野派 artists rendered the Wind and Water Cave theme both on fans (Nanzenji 南禅寺, Kyoto) and screens (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). The majority of these paintings show Su Dongpo arriving on horse back to visit a beautiful young boy waiting inside an ornate castle. Kano Ikkei's 狩野一渓 (1599-1662) *Kōsoshū 後素集 of 1623 lists the theme under the heading of male love, nanshoku 男色 and depictions are included in many early Edo period *kana zōshi 仮名草子 on the theme of male love.