Old Man of the Southern Pole (under tree), Lü Dongbin (left), Zonglin Quan (center), Xue Shenwong (right) [center left of the set Daoist Immortals], 1646
Kano Sansetsuexpand_more
Ink, color, and gold leaf on paperexpand_more
The Putnam Dana McMillan Fundexpand_more 63.37.2
Not on Viewexpand_more
These sliding door panels (fusuma) show a group of Chinese Daoist immortals. The Chinese believed the immortals were historical and legendary personages who, through moral virtue, faith, and discipline, managed to transcend the bounds of the natural world and live forever. They were worshiped as saints. Old Chinese themes like this were admired in Japan by military rulers and Zen priests, who exalted Chinese culture and its heroes.
This set of panels formed part of a much larger suite of paintings made for a temple in Kyoto. In the 1640s, Kano Sansetsu and his studio created hundreds of panel paintings for this temple. A devastating fire in the 1800s destroyed all but eight—the four panels you see here and four paintings that decorated their reverse, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Details
- Title
- Old Man of the Southern Pole (under tree), Lü Dongbin (left), Zonglin Quan (center), Xue Shenwong (right) [center left of the set Daoist Immortals]
- Artist Life
- 1589 - 1651
- Role
- Artist
- Accession Number
- 63.37.2
- Provenance
- Tenshō-in, Myōshinji, Kyoto; Mathias Komor (until 1963)
- Catalogue Raisonne
- Masterpieces from the Japanese painting collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art ミネアポリス美術館 日本絵画の名品 Cat.10
- Curator Approved
This record has been reviewed by our curatorial staff but may be incomplete. These records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about this object, please email collectionsdata@artsmia.org.
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