Zhong Kui with Tiger and Bat
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.This auspicious painting is by the Zen monk Kenkō Shōkei, a leading painter in eastern Japan around the former capital Kamakura. It shows Daoist figure Zhong Kui (Japanese: Shōki), a queller of demons associated with healing and good health, riding a tiger below a bat. A copy of this work by Shōkei’s prominent follower Keison is held in the collection of the Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Art in Japan. This previously unknown example of Shōkei’s work is being exhibited here for the first time.
Artwork Details
- 賢江祥啓筆 鐘馗図
- Title: Zhong Kui with Tiger and Bat
- Artist: Kenkō Shōkei (Japanese, active ca. 1478–ca. 1523)
- Period: Muromachi period (1392–1573)
- Date: late 15th–early 16th century
- Culture: Japan
- Medium: Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
- Dimensions: Image: 36 5/16 × 17 1/4 in. (92.2 × 43.8 cm)
Overall with mounting: 70 5/8 × 22 15/16 in. (179.4 × 58.3 cm)
Overall with knobs: 70 5/8 × 25 5/8 in. (179.4 × 65.1 cm) - Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Lent by John C. Weber Collection
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art