This paper takes cultural filtering as the theoretical perspective, on the basis of the research on the image of Li Yu in early modern Japan, combined with the analysis of the creation of the paintings named Copy Book of Shi Bian Shi Yi (じゅうべんじゅうぎ), which is praised as national treasure of Japan, and the spread of Painting Manual of the Mustard Seed Garden in Japan, aims to reveal the special aspect of Li Yu's image in the early modern Japanese painting world, which was an artist who is proficient in not only literary but also history, and a hermit with unique insight. This kind of image is quite different from his vulgar flavor presented as a dramatist. Instead, it showed elegance. This elegant image is the result of cultural filtering. In essence, it is the reverse of the hereditary system occurred in early modern Japanese literature and art fields.