Above the monk-painter Yōgetsu’s auspicious image of a pair of fish swimming in a pond, a little-known person calling himself Mokumoku Dōjin inscribed a poem. It recalls the carp’s role as a vehicle of the Daoist immortal Qingao:
Windwhips the grass along the riverbank, frigid at dusk. A single ray of brilliant red illuminates the white shoal. If Qingao were here, he would not be riding a crane— He’d have [his carp] shaking their heads and snapping their tails, spinning waves into whirlpools. —Translated by Aaron Rio
On view for rotations 1 and 2
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Artwork Details
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楊月筆 默默道人賛 藻鯉図
Title:Carp and Waterweeds
Artist:Yōgetsu (Japanese, active late 15th century)
Artist: Inscribed by Mokumoku Dōjin (Japanese, active late 15th century)
Period:Muromachi period (1392–1573)
Date:late 15th century
Culture:Japan
Medium:Hanging scroll; ink on silk
Dimensions:Image: 33 7/16 × 13 7/8 in. (85 × 35.2 cm) Overall with mounting: 65 3/4 × 19 1/16 in. (167 × 48.4 cm) Overall with knobs: 65 3/4 × 20 7/8 in. (167 × 53 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Mary Griggs Burke Collection, Gift of the Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, 2015
Object Number:2015.300.60
Inscription: "Waving their heads, flipping their tails They (fishes) roil the waves" (translated Dr. Cornelius Chang); colophon is signed by Mokumoku Dojin
Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation , New York (until 2015; donated to MMA)
Tokyo National Museum. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," May 21, 1985–June 30, 1985.
Nagoya City Art Museum. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," August 17, 1985–September 23, 1985.
Atami. MOA Museum of Art. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," September 29, 1985–October 27, 1985.
Hamamatsu City Museum of Art. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," November 12, 1985–December 1, 1985.
New York. Asia Society. "Art of Japan: Selections from the Burke Collection, pts. I and II," October 2, 1986–February 22, 1987.
Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt. "Die Kunst des Alten Japan: Meisterwerke aus der Mary and Jackson Burke Collection," September 16, 1990–November 18, 1990.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Celebrating the Arts of Japan: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," October 20, 2015–May 14, 2017.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Anxiety and Hope in Japanese Art," April 8, 2023–July 14, 2024.
Murase, Miyeko, Il Kim, Shi-yee Liu, Gratia Williams Nakahashi, Stephanie Wada, Soyoung Lee, and David Sensabaugh. Art Through a Lifetime: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection. Vol. 1, Japanese Paintings, Printed Works, Calligraphy. [New York]: Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, [2013], pp. 96–97, cat. no. 120.
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