Catching a Catfish with a Gourd (Ink and Light Color on Paper; by Josetsu)

Catching a Catfish with a Gourd

The Hyonenzu (Catching a Catfish with a Gourd), ink and light colour on paper, by Josetsu (紙本墨画淡彩瓢鮎図〈如拙筆〉) is an ink painting made in the Muromachi period (15th century) by the painter-monk Josetsu, owned by Taizoin, a subtemple of Myoshinji in Hanazono, Ukyo Ward, Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture, and designated a National Treasure on June 9, 1951. According to the Kyoto National Museum, it measures 111.5 by 75.8 centimetres.

The painting shows a marshy stretch of water fed by a small stream, where a scruffy, heavily bearded man holds out a large gourd in both hands toward an enormous catfish. Tall mountains behind and the surrounding landscape dissolve into mist, the museum explains.

Why It Is a National Treasure

According to the Kyoto National Museum, a text above the picture explains how it came to be made. Its theme was a riddle, whether one can pin down a catfish with a gourd, set by Ashikaga Yoshimochi (1386 to 1428), fourth shogun of the Muromachi shogunate; on his order Josetsu painted the picture, and Zen monks wrote their answers in the form of poems.

There are 31 poems above the image. Inscriptions on Muromachi ink paintings are common, but usually number a dozen or so at most, and here every writer was among the highest-ranking monks of Kyoto's great Zen temples in the early 15th century. Both its strange subject and the number of poems make it unique, and the museum calls it a masterpiece of Muromachi ink painting that vividly conveys the free spirit of the circle around Yoshimochi.

What to Look For

The museum draws attention to how Josetsu handled his forms. The catfish, gourd, bamboo, flowing water and banks are all drawn in curves that heighten the sense of slipperiness, while only the man with the gourd is rendered in straight, comic lines, neatly showing the foolishness of his task.

The background to the riddle is worth knowing. It is thought to build on a Chinese saying about a catfish climbing a bamboo pole, meaning success after hardship, with the slippery gourd added. The monks' poems, though they look like individual musings, are in fact linked verse, a word game played among the writers, according to the museum.

Seeing the Painting

The painting belongs to Taizoin. Taizoin's website could not be reached on October 4, 2026, so the current display arrangements for the original could not be confirmed from an official source. Check announcements from the owner or from museum exhibitions for opportunities to see it. Taizoin is in the Myoshinji complex in Hanazono Myoshinji-cho, Ukyo Ward, Kyoto.