Great Waves: Chinese Themes in the Arts of Korea and Japan

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Great Waves: Chinese Themes in the Arts of Korea and Japan

Beneficent Rain, Yuan dynasty (1279–1368)

Zhang Yucai (Celestial Master of the Zhengyi sect of Daoism, r. 1295–1316; died 1316)

Chinese

Handscroll; ink on silk; 10 5/8 x 106 3/4 in. (27 x 271.4 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Gift of Douglas Dillon, 1985 (1985.227.2) Description

Zhang Yucai, the thirty-eighth pope (r. 1295–1316) of the Zhengyi ("Orthodox Unity") Daoist church, lived at Mount Longhu (Dragon Tiger Mountain) in Jiangxi Province. A favorite of the Yuan emperors, he received commendation from the Mongol court for inducing needed rain and for subduing a "tide monster" that had plagued the eastern seacoast.

Dragons, as symbols of nature's elemental forces, have been depicted in Chinese art from time immemorial. A special genre, dragon paintings were given powerful treatment by such Southern Song masters as Chen Rong (active about 1235–1262) and the Chan Buddhist painter Muqi (active about 1240–1275). In a fourteenth-century account, Chen's working methods are described as follows: He "makes clouds by splashing ink, creates vapor by spraying water, and, while drunk, shouting loudly, takes off his cap, soaks it in ink, and smears and rubs with it, before finishing the painting with a brush."

On Chen Rong's celebrated Nine Dragons handscroll dated 1244, in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, there is a colophon dated 1331 by Zhang Yucai's son Zhang Sicheng, the thirty-ninth Daoist pope (r. 1317–1344). Beneficent Rain is closely related to Chen Rong's Nine Dragons both in content and in style, and may have been directly inspired by the Boston scroll or others like it.

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Great Waves: Chinese Themes in the Arts of Korea and Japan

Rough Waves, Edo Period (1615–1868); after 1704

Ogata Korin (1658–1716)

Japanese

Two-panel folding screen; ink, color, and gold on gilded paper; 57 11/16 x 65 1/8 in. (146.6 x 165.4 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Purchase, Fletcher Fund, 1926 (26.117)

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Great Waves: Chinese Themes in the Arts of Korea and Japan

Duke Wen of Jin Recovering His State (detail 1, 2, 3), Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279)

Attributed to Li Tang (ca. 1070s–ca. 1150s)

Chinese

Handscroll; ink and color on silk; 11 5/8 x 325 5/8 in. (29.5 x 827 cm)

Ex Coll.: C. C. Wang Family

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Gift of The Dillon Fund, 1973 (1973.120.2) Description

An important example of early "history painting," Duke Wen of Jin Recovering His State illustrates episodes from the life of Chonger of the state of Jin, who, after spending nineteen years in exile, returned to Jin as Duke Wen (r. 636–628 B.C.) to dominate the other feudal princes. This triumphant story of political recovery was used by the first Southern Song emperor, Gaozong, who had been a hostage of the Jurchen Jin before he escaped to reestablish the Song court in the south at Hangzhou. As emperor, he sponsored a number of narrative painting and calligraphy projects extolling the virtues and legitimacy of his "dynastic revival."

Zhou Mi (1232–1298) ascribed the painting to Li Tang and the text to Gaozong. This version of the story of Duke Wen follows the Zuojuan account of about the second century B.C. The drawing of the figures shows the influence of Li Gonglin (ca. 1041–1106), while the modeling of the rocks suggests the method of Guo Xi (ca. 1000–ca. 1090), the great landscapist of Henan Province whom Li Tang must have known in his youth.

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Great Waves: Chinese Themes in the Arts of Korea and Japan

Mountain Market, Clear with Rising Mist

Xia Gui (Chinese, Southern Song dynasty 1127–1279; active ca. 1195–1230)

Album leaf, ink on silk; 9 3/4 x 8 3/8 (24.8 x 21.3 cm)

Signed "Xia Gui"

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

John Stewart Kennedy Fund, 1913 (13.100.102) Description

This album leaf presents a poetic evocation of one of the Eight Views of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers. The Eight Views became a popular subject for painters beginning in the late eleventh century after the Chan Buddhist monk Huihong (1071–1128) composed eight poems on these themes. His poem on Mountain Market, Clear with Rising Mist offers vividly specific images for painters to interpret:

Last night's rain is letting up, mountain air is heavy,

Steam rising, sun and shadow, shifting light amid trees;

The silkworm market comes to a close, the crowd thins out,

Roadside willows by the market bridge: golden threads play;

Whose house with flower-filled plot is across the valley?

A smooth-tongued yellow bird calls in spring breeze;

Wine flag in hazy distance-look and you can see:

It's the one west of the road to Zhe Tree Reidge Valley.

   (Translation by Alfreda Murck in Images of the Mind, Princeton, 1984, p. 226)

In Xia Gui's interpretation, boldly executed brushstrokes and ink dots create an abstract language of visual signs rather than merely descriptive forms: the kinesthetic brushstrokes, which change effortlessly from outlines and foliage dots to wedge-shaped modeling strokes and ink wash, at once simplify and unify the landscape and human forms, breathing life into the moisture-drenched landscape. It was this brilliantly simplified ink wash and ax-cut brush idiom, which infused gesture with meaning, that prepared the way for the calligraphic revolution of expressive brushwork in the ensuing Yuan dynasty.

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Great Waves: Chinese Themes in the Arts of Korea and Japan

Landscapes in the Style of An Kyon, Choson dynasty (1392–1910)

Unidentified artist (15th century)

Korean

Pair of hanging scrolls; ink on silk; 34 3/4 x 17 3/4 in. (88.3 x 45.1 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest and Mr. and Mrs. Frederick P. Rose and John B. Elliott Gifts, 1987 (1987.278a,b)

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Great Waves: Chinese Themes in the Arts of Korea and Japan

Scenes from the Series Eight Views of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers, Muromachi Period (1392–1573)

Unidentified artist (16th century)

Japanese

Set of three hanging scrolls; ink and light color on paper; each scroll: 60 7/8 x 23 1/4 in. (154.6 x 59.1 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Purchase, Harris Brisbane Dick Fund; Mary Livingston Griggs and Mary Griggs Burke Foundation Gifts; Gifts of Major General R. B. Woodruff, C. M. Owen, Elizabeth B. Gerhard and Mr. and Mrs. Teiji Ito, Bequests of Stephen Whitney Phoenix and Bruce Webster, Fletcher Fund, and The Howard Mansfield Collection, Gift of Howard Mansfield, by exchange; and funds from various donors, 1985 (1985.239.1–.3)

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Great Waves: Chinese Themes in the Arts of Korea and Japan

Finches and Bamboo, Northern Song dynasty (960–1127)

Emperor Huizong (1082–1135, r. 1101–1125)

Chinese

Handscroll; ink and color on silk; 11 x 18 in. (27.9 x 45.7 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

John M. Crawford, Jr. Collection, Purchase, Douglas Dillon Gift, 1981 (1981.278) Description

Huizong, the eighth Song emperor and a rapacious collector of art objects, was a painter and calligrapher of great talent. In 1127, Huizong's capital at Bianliang (modern Kaifeng, Henan Province) was sacked by the Jurchen, and the emperor was carried off to the north; he died in captivity in 1135. Finches and Bamboo illustrates the suprarealistic style of flower-and-bird painting preferred by Huizong's Painting Academy. In such works, the artist displayed his intimate knowledge of the appearance and growth of plants and his ability to render accurately the movements of birds as they hop about or stand poised ready for flight. Whether making a study from nature or illustrating a line of poetry, however, capturing the spirit of the subject was valued above mere literal representation. Here, the minutely observed finches are imbued with the alertness and sprightly vitality of their living counterparts. Drops of lacquer added to the birds' eyes impart a final lifelike touch.

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Great Waves: Chinese Themes in the Arts of Korea and Japan

Cranes and Flowers of the Four Seasons: Autumn and Winter, Muromachi Period (1392–1573)

Unidentified artist (mid-16th century)

Japanese

Six-fold screen; ink, colors, and gold on paper; 63 1/4 x 137 3/8 in. (160.7 x 349 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Purchase, Mrs. Jackson Burke and Mary Livingston Griggs and Mary Griggs Burke Foundation Gifts, 1987 (1987.342.2)

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Great Waves: Chinese Themes in the Arts of Korea and Japan

Fragrant Snow at Broken Bridge (detail), Yuan dynasty (1279–1368)

Wang Mian (1287–1359)

Chinese

Hanging scroll; ink on silk; 44 5/8 x 19 5/8 in. (113.2 x 49.8 cm)

Ex. Coll.: C. C. Wang Family

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Purchase, Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, by exchange, 1973 (1973.121.9)

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Great Waves: Chinese Themes in the Arts of Korea and Japan

The Old Plum Tree, Edo Period (1615–1868); dated 1645

Attributed to Kano Sansetsu (1589–1651)

Japanese

Four sliding doors (fusuma); ink, color, and gold on gilded paper; each: 65 5/8 x 45 3/4 in. (166.7 x 116.2 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The Harry G. C. Packard Collection of Asian Art, Gift of Harry G. C. Packard, and Purchase, Fletcher, Rogers, Harris Brisbane Dick, and Louis V. Bell Funds, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, and The Annenberg Fund Inc. Gift, 1975 (1975.268.48a–d)

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Great Waves: Chinese Themes in the Arts of Korea and Japan

Bamboo and Rocks, Yuan dynasty (1279–1368); dated 1318

Li Kan (1245–1320)

Chinese

Pair of hanging scrolls; ink and color on silk; each scroll: 74 3/4 x 21 3/4 in. (189.9 x 55.2 cm)

Ex Coll.: C. C. Wang Family

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Gift of The Dillon Fund, 1973 (1973.120.7)

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Great Waves: Chinese Themes in the Arts of Korea and Japan

Bamboo in the Four Seasons, Muromachi Period (1392–1573)

Attributed to Tosa Mitsunobu (1434–1525; 16th century)

Japanese

Pair of six-fold screens; ink and colors on paper; each screen: 61 13/16 x 141 3/4 in. (157 x 360 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The Harry G. C. Packard Collection of Asian Art, Gift of Harry G. C. Packard, and Purchase, Fletcher, Rogers, Harris Brisbane Dick, and Louis V. Bell Funds, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, and The Annenberg Fund Inc. Gift, 1975 (1975.268.44, .45)

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Great Waves: Chinese Themes in the Arts of Korea and Japan

The Buddha Amitabha Welcoming Souls into the Pure Land Paradise

Unidentified artist (Chinese, Southern Song dynasty 1127–1279; 13th century)

Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk; 53 9/16 x 23 1/16 in. (136 x 58.5 cm)

Inscribed by the artist

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Purchase, The Dillon Fund Gift, 1980 (1980.275) Description

This painting, traditionally ascribed by Japanese scholars to a Song Buddhist painter named Zhang Sigong, represents the Buddha Amitabha welcoming souls into his Western Paradise. The drapery of the robe is drawn in the "scudding-cloud and running-water" style, a drapery pattern used by the Chinese to recall the Indian origin of the Buddha image.

Infrared photography has revealed the following traces of an inscription in the lower-left corner: "Qingyuanfu, east of Washing Horse Bridge...." Since the name of the city of Ningbo was changed from Mingzhou to Qingyuanfu in 1195 and to Qingyuanlu in 1277, the painting may be dated to the last eighty-two years of the Southern Song dynasty. Stylistically, this work appears to date from the end of the twelfth or the beginning of the thirteenth century: the figure is extremely well drawn, with fine lines firmly describing the splendid face and hands of the image in a fully three-dimensional manner. An almost identical Buddha appears in one of the Daitokuji Five Hundred Lohans paintings, also made in Ningbo and dated 1178.

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Great Waves: Chinese Themes in the Arts of Korea and Japan

Welcoming Descent of Amida and Twenty-five Bodhisattvas, Nanbokucho Period (1336–92)

Unidentified artist (late 14th century)

Japanese

Hanging scroll; ink, color, and gold on silk; 65 3/4 x 33 1/2 in. (167 x 85.1 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Gift of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, 1942 (42.25.37) Description

Like many of the works of art created to represent the Pure Land belief in salvation through faith, raigo (welcoming descent) paintings like this example were indispensable religious furnishings at the time of death. Such raigo paintings depict the scene in which Amida (Skt.: Amitabha) and his attendants descend from heaven to take a believer back to the Western Paradise on a lotus throne. The scrolls were often hung by the bedside of the dying to ensure the prospect of rebirth in paradise. Since traditionally the dying lay with their heads to the north and their faces turned west, raigo paintings usually depict the Buddha and his entourage coming from upper left down toward lower right so as to meet the gaze of the dying. Sometimes silken cords were attached to Buddha's hand, offering the dying physical assistance during the journey to paradise.

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Great Waves: Chinese Themes in the Arts of Korea and Japan

Eight Bridges (Yatsuhashi), Edo Period (1615–1868); after 1710

Ogata Korin (1658–1716)

Japanese

Pair of six-panel screens; ink and color on gilded paper; 70 1/2 x 146 1/4 in. (179.1 x 371.5 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Purchase, Louisa Eldridge McBurney Gift, 1953 (53.7.1, .2) Description

Irises first became a popular pictorial motif in the seventeenth century through the revival of the Tales of Ise, the tenth-century classic of courtly literature, and through Kakitsubata, a Noh play it inspired. Ogata Korin treated irises in many variation and media, and they became a standard theme among his followers in the Rinpa School. Here, their stately vertical forms combined with an angular bridge that sweeps diagonally across both screens allude to an episode in the ninth chapter of the Tales of Ise. Exiled from Kyoto to the eastern provinces after an affair with a high-ranking court lady, the hero of the Tales stops at a place where a small stream branches into eight channels, each with its own bridge. At the sight of the irises, he composes a nostalgic love poem. Since this theme was familiar to his audience, Korin eliminated the tale's narrative content and focused instead on vibrantly colored clumps of iris against a shimmering ground of gold leaf. The asymmetrical balance that binds the two screens in a tension-filled, cohesive whole exemplifies the rigorous sense of design underlying Korin's finest large-scale compositions.

Ogata Korin was one of the most brilliant masters of the Rinpa School. In addition to painting, he produced designs for ceramics, lacquerware, and textiles. These screens are impressed with the "Masatoki" seals that he began using around 1710. Thus, they date to the final years of his career.