Mount Penglai with Eight Views of Xiao and Xiang
The center panel depicts the mystical mountain of Hōrai, the most popular of the auspicious symbols displayed on the New Year in Japan. Balanced on the back of a tortoise, a symbol of longevity, the isle supports other symbols of long life-a crane and pine tree-while plum flowers and the rising sun announce the coming of a new day in a new year.
The two flanking panels depict imaginary Chinese landscapes that were inspired by the Chinese scenes in the Eight Views of Xiao and Xiang Rivers. To the right is a spring landscape and to the left, one of winter. The artist of these three panels, a Kano-trained artist, signed his age as sixty-seven. He had achieved the high position of Hokkyō (a Buddhist title granted to meritorious artists), yet his dates and life still remain unknown.
The two flanking panels depict imaginary Chinese landscapes that were inspired by the Chinese scenes in the Eight Views of Xiao and Xiang Rivers. To the right is a spring landscape and to the left, one of winter. The artist of these three panels, a Kano-trained artist, signed his age as sixty-seven. He had achieved the high position of Hokkyō (a Buddhist title granted to meritorious artists), yet his dates and life still remain unknown.
Artwork Details
- 狩野探水守常筆 蓬莱山・瀟湘八景図
- Title: Mount Penglai with Eight Views of Xiao and Xiang
- Artist: Kano Tansui Moritsune (active 19th century)
- Period: Edo period (1615–1868)
- Date: 19th century
- Culture: Japan
- Medium: One from a triptych of hanging scrolls; ink and color on silk
- Dimensions: Image: 37 1/2 × 13 1/2 in. (95.3 × 34.3 cm)
Overall with mounting: 73 1/2 × 19 3/8 in. (186.7 × 49.2 cm)
Overall with knobs: 73 1/2 × 21 1/8 in. × 1 in. (diam. of knobs) (186.7 × 53.7 × 2.5 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
- Object Number: 14.76.14
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
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