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Two Sennin
Two Sennin

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
Two Sennin
Kano Eitoku
late 16th-early 17th century
Object number: 57.60.1
Chokoro on horseback
Kano Eitoku
16th-17th century
Object number: 57.60.2
Photo: Beth Mann
Kano Yasunobu
17th century
Object number: 34.109.1
Photo: Beth Mann
Kano Yasunobu
17th century
Object number: 34.109.2
Photo: Beth Mann
Kano Yasunobu
17th century
Object number: 34.109.3
Photo: Beth Mann
Kano School
16th century
Object number: 34.105
Photo: Spike Mafford
Kano Sanraku
17th century
Object number: 34.107
Photo: Beth Mann
Kano School
17th century
Object number: 34.104
Photo: Spike Mafford
Kano School
1615-1750
Object number: 34.108
Photo: Beth Mann
Kano Tsunenobu
late 17th-early 18th century
Object number: 34.111
Photo: Spike Mafford
Kano Shoyei
16th century
Object number: 34.113
Fan:  Two Mandarin Ducks
Kano Motonobu School
16th century
Object number: 60.90