Buffalo and Herdsman

Artist:: Kawanabe Kyōsai (Japanese, 1831–1889)

Period:: Meiji period (1868–1912)

Date:: ca. 1887

Culture:: Japan

Medium:: Album leaf; ink and color on silk

Dimensions:: 14 1/4 x 10 1/2 in. (36.2 x 26.7 cm)

Classification:: Paintings

Credit Line:: Charles Stewart Smith Collection, Gift of Mrs. Charles Stewart Smith, Charles Stewart Smith Jr., and Howard Caswell Smith, in memory of Charles Stewart Smith, 1914

Accession Number:: 14.76.61.16

Not on view

One of the most engaging of Zen (Ch'an) Buddhist instructional tales is the "Ten Scenes with an Ox" (Jugyuzu), a Southern Song invention. The story of an ox-herding boy in search of his lost charge is an analogy for discipline and enlightenment as the wayward ox, standing for the self, is found, roped, and led home. Appealing as genre scenes, the fifth scene, of the ox being led by the boy (religious training), and the sixth scene, of the boy riding the ox toward home (the two as one), are often repeated apart from the set.

Kawanabe Kyosai trained in the Kano studios and was well acquainted with popular Chinese themes in Japanese painting. His eccentric point of view makes even the most academic and conventionally executed of his works compelling.

Charles Stewart Smith , New York (until d. 1909; by descent to his heirs).; Mrs. Charles Stewart Smith , Charles Stewart Smith Jr., and Howard Caswell Smith, New York (until 1914; donated to MMA).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "No Ordinary Mortals: The Human and Not-So-Human Figure in Japanese Art," 1996.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Animals, Birds, Insects, and Marine Life in Japanese Art," June 26, 2008–November 30, 2008.

Tokyo. Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum. "Kyōsai: Master painter and his student Josiah Conder," June 27, 2015–September 6, 2015.

Timelines
Japan, 1800-1900 A.D.

Department

Asian Art (35,424)

Artist / Maker / Culture

Kawanabe Kyōsai (59)

Object Type / Material

Geographic Location