Sparrow on a blossoming plum tree, 1661
Kanō Tan’yū 狩野 探幽 (1602-1674)
Inscribed and dated by Muan Xingtao 木菴性瑫 (Jp. Mokuan Shōtō, 1611-1684)
Japan, Edo period (1615-1868)
Ink on paper
32.7 × 56.2 cm
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Purchased through The Art Foundation of Victoria with the assistance of Mr. S. Baillieu Myer AC, Founder Benefactor, 1993, Digital record made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of The Gordon Darling Foundation, AS29-1993
The snow has brought forth the blossoming of the plum branch
—trans. National Gallery of Victoria, 2004, The art of Zen
Tan’yū was the brilliant head of the Kanō school of painting, official painters to the military
shogunal rulers of the Tokugawa family. In his incessant study of paintings, both Chinese and
Japanese, he sought to meet Ingen and other Ōbaku monks, to study their Chinese painting
collections and, as evident in this work, to learn literati style painting from them. Here, the
Ōbaku abbot Muan Xingtao inscribed the accompanying poem.