The Chinese emperor Ming Huang and Yang Kuei-fei

From the eighth century onward, Chinese poetry, painting, and calligraphy were highly esteemed in Japan. Certain Chinese subjects, familiar to Japan's cultural leaders through literary sources, enjoyed great popularity during the early seventeenth century. Chinese poetry of the Tang dynasty (618-907), especially by Bo Juyi (772-846), had been highly appreciated in the Heian period (794-1185) and was nearly as familiar to literate Japanese as was the historic poetry of Japan.

The long poem known as the Song of Everlasting Sorrow recounts the story of Emperor Ming Huang (reigned 712-756), whose excessive love for his beautiful concubine, Yang Guifei (circa 720-756), cast his empire into disorder and brought about her death in the An Lushan uprising of 756. This tragic story of passionate love and grief was illustrated in many Japanese screen paintings during the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In this composition, flowers bloom profusely as the emperor and Yang Guifei meet in the palace garden.

The artist of this painting is unknown, but the style reflects the characteristics of the Kano school. Kano painters, who traced their lineage back to the fifteenth century, initially specialized in the subjects and styles of Chinese painting favored in that period by elite patrons such as the shoguns of the Ashikaga line.