Two Sennin

Date16th-17th century

Maker Kano Eitoku Japanese, 1543 - 1590

Label TextThe extensive spiritual practice of Daoist immortals allows them to transcend mundane limits and avoid death. This composition features an immortal flying on horseback, probably Zhang Guolao, who carried a donkey or horse in a gourd and decanted it when he wanted to ride it. The surprised figures on either side are stock figures of the Kano studio of painters, which emerged in the late 1400s in Kyoto, and for which Eitoku served as fifth-generation head. The same trio of surprised figures, for example, appears on sliding-door panels created in 1606 to decorate the abbot’s residence at Ryо̄anji, a well-known Zen monastery. Like those panels, this triptych was likely created by one of Eitoku’s sons, working in the style of the master shortly after his death.

Object number57.60.3

Provenance[Yamanaka & Co.]; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1957

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Legends, Tales, Poetry: Visual Narrative in Japanese Art, December 22, 2012 - July 21, 2013 Portland, Oregon, Portland Art Museum, "Gift to a City," November 3 - 28, 1965Published ReferencesFuller, Richard E. "Japanese Art in the Seattle Art Museum: An Historical Sketch." Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum, 1960 ("Presented in commemoration of the Hundredth Anniversary of Diplomatic Relations between Japan and the United States of America"), no. 100a "Gift to a City" exhibition catalogue. Portland, OR: Portland Art Museum, 1965, cat. no. 123

Credit LineMargaret E. Fuller Purchase Fund

DimensionsOverall (incl mounting, endknobs & hanging braid): 101 × 33 3/4 in. (256.5 × 85.7 cm) Image: 52 5/8 × 24 3/8 in. (133.7 × 61.9 cm) Width (without endknobs): 31 1/2 in. (80 cm)

MediumWatercolor and ink on paper mounted on silk, ivory