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Herd Boy with Ox

Attributed to Kano Masanobu 狩野正信 Japanese
late 15th century
Not on view
The bucolic scene of a herd-boy mounted on a water buffalo together making their way past rice paddies across a shallow river evokes a universally understood sense of harmony with nature while simultaneously sparking multiple associations in the context of early Japanese ink painting. While an affinity to didactic Zen Buddhist parables such as the Ten Ox‑Herding Songs is obvious, the image of an ox and ox‑herd was also emblematic of spring and agriculture, and enjoyed a long history in secular landscape painting in both China and Japan. This painting, in ink on a gilded fan, was probably based on a similar composition in a round fan-shaped painting by the thirteenth-century Chinese court painter Xia Gui, whose works were treasured in prominent Japanese collections of the fifteenth century.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • 牧童図扇面
  • Title: Herd Boy with Ox
  • Artist: Attributed to Kano Masanobu 狩野正信 (Japanese, ca. 1434–ca. 1530)
  • Period: Muromachi period (1392–1573)
  • Date: late 15th century
  • Culture: Japan
  • Medium: Folding fan mounted as a hanging scroll; ink and gold on paper
  • Dimensions: Image: 8 7/8 × 18 1/2 in. (22.5 × 47 cm)
    Overall with mounting: 53 1/8 × 27 11/16 in. (135 × 70.3 cm)
    Overall with knobs: 53 1/8 × 29 5/16 in. (135 × 74.5 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Mary Griggs Burke Collection, Gift of the Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, 2015
  • Object Number: 2015.300.48
  • Curatorial Department: Asian Art

More Artwork

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Plum Tree and Waterfowl, Kano Masanobu 狩野正信 Japanese, Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper, Japan
Plum Tree and Waterfowl
Kano Masanobu 狩野正信
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Bodhidharma in Red Robes, Kano Masanobu 狩野正信 Japanese, Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper, Japan
Bodhidharma in Red Robes
Kano Masanobu 狩野正信
late 15th century
The Four Deities of Mount Kōya, Hanging scroll; ink, color and gold on silk, Japan
The Four Deities of Mount Kōya
Japan
16th century
Birds and Flowers of Summer and Autumn, Shikibu Terutada Japanese, Pair of hanging scrolls; ink and color on paper, Japan
Birds and Flowers of Summer and Autumn
Shikibu Terutada
mid-16th century
Musk Cat, Uto Gyoshi Japanese, Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper, Japan
Musk Cat
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mid- to late 16th century

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