id: 135592
accession number: 1959.136
share license status: CC0
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1959.136
updated: 2022-05-06 09:00:14.282000
Dragon and Tiger, c. 1546-56. Sesson Shūkei (Japanese, c. 1492–c. 1577). Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink on paper; painting: 157.3 x 339 cm (61 15/16 x 133 7/16 in.); framed: 172.3 x 354 cm (67 13/16 x 139 3/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1959.136
title: Dragon and Tiger
title in original language: 龍虎図屏風
series:
series in original language:
creation date: c. 1546-56
creation date earliest: 1546
creation date latest: 1556
current location:
creditline: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
copyright:
---
culture: Japan, Muromachi period (1392-1573) to Momoyama period (1573-1615)
technique: Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink on paper
department: Japanese Art
collection: ASIAN - Folding screen
type: Painting
find spot:
catalogue raisonne:
---
CREATORS
* Sesson Shūkei (Japanese, c. 1492–c. 1577) - artist
---
measurements: Painting: 157.3 x 339 cm (61 15/16 x 133 7/16 in.); Framed: 172.3 x 354 cm (67 13/16 x 139 3/8 in.)
state of the work:
edition of the work:
support materials:
inscriptions:
---
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
title: Japanese Decorative Style
opening date: 1961-08-30T04:00:00
Japanese Decorative Style. The Cleveland Museum of Art (August 30-October 15, 1961).
title: Juxtapositions
opening date: 1965-09-11T04:00:00
Juxtapositions. The Cleveland Museum of Art (September 11-October 10, 1965).
title: Japanese Screens from the Museum and Cleveland Collections
opening date: 1977-03-23T04:00:00
Japanese Screens from the Museum and Cleveland Collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (March 23-May 8, 1977).
title: Byobu: The Art of the Japanese Screen
opening date: 1984-08-01T04:00:00
Byobu: The Art of the Japanese Screen. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (August 1-October 14, 1984).
title: Japanese Ink Painting
opening date: 1987-10-13T04:00:00
Japanese Ink Painting. Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, Japan (organizer) (October 13-November 23, 1987).
title: Asian Autumn: Masterpieces from the Collection
opening date: 1991-09-17T04:00:00
Asian Autumn: Masterpieces from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 17, 1991-January 5, 1992).
title: Highlights of Asian Paintings from The Cleveland Museum of Art
opening date: 1998-02-21T00:00:00
Highlights of Asian Paintings from The Cleveland Museum of Art. Nara National Museum (organizer) (February 21-March 29, 1998); Suntory Museum of Art (April 28-June 21, 1998).
title: Streams and Mountains Without End: Asian Art and the Legacy of Sherman E. Lee at the Cleveland Museum of Art
opening date: 2009-06-27T04:00:00
Streams and Mountains Without End: Asian Art and the Legacy of Sherman E. Lee at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 27-August 23, 2009).
title: Admired from Afar: Masterworks of Japanese Painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art
opening date: 2014-01-15T00:00:00
Admired from Afar: Masterworks of Japanese Painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, Japan (January 15-February 23, 2014); Kyushu National Museum, Fukuoka, Japan (July 8-August 31, 2014).
---
LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
* Japanese Ink Paintings from American Collections: The Muromachi period: An exhibition in honor of Shūjirō Shimada. The Art Museum, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ (April 25–June 13, 1976).
---
PROVENANCE
H. Mitsui; C. Satomi.
date:
footnotes:
citations:
(Howard Hollis and Co., Cleveland, OH, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
date: ?-1959
footnotes:
citations:
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, 1959-present
date: 1959-
footnotes:
citations:
---
fun fact:
This pair of screens is considered the masterpiece of Sesson's body of work, and may have been created for the lord of Odawara in eastern Japan.
digital description:
A tiger sits in a bamboo grove whipped with fierce wind, while a dragon claws through clouds above rough waves. Tiger and dragon are Chinese cosmological symbols of the balancing forces in the world, yin (the feminine aspect) and yang (the masculine aspect). The tiger's roar is also said to generate wind, and the dragon clouds. The screens may have originally been meant to express the fluctuating nature of the world as envisioned in the practice of military divination, or forecasting, based on the Ijing (Book of Changes).
wall description:
---
RELATED WORKS
---
CITATIONS
Kakuzō Okakura 岡倉覺三 and Mataichi Fukuchi 福地復一 . Kōhon Nihon Teikoku bijutsu ryakushi 稿本日本帝國美術略史. Tōkyō: Nihon Bijutsusha, 1908.
page number: Mentioned: [p. 160]; Reproduced: p. 161
url:
Lee, Sherman E. Japanese Decorative Style. [Cleveland]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1961.
page number: Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 50–51; cat. no. 47
url: https://archive.org/details/JapaneseDecorativeStyle/page/n63
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
page number: Reproduced: p. 279
url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n303
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
page number: Reproduced: p. 279
url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n303
Shimizu, Yoshiaki, and Carolyn Wheelwright. Japanese Ink Paintings from American Collections: The Muromachi Period: an Exhibition in Honor of Shūjirō Shimada. Princeton, NJ: Art Museum, Princeton University: Distributed by Princeton University Press, 1976.
page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 27, pp. 206–211
url:
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
page number: Reproduced: p. 377
url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n397
Cunningham, Michael R. "The Japanese Painter Yamaguchi Sekkei." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 67, no. 1 (1980): 2–16.
page number: Mentioned: p. 15, 7
url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25159655
Lee, Sherman E, Ursula Korneitchouk, Michael R Cunningham, Ursula Korneitchouk, Cleveland Museum of Art, Japan House Gallery, Japan Society (New York, N.Y.), and Japan House Gallery. One Thousand Years of Japanese Art (650-1650): From the Cleveland Museum of Art: Catalogue. New York: Japan Society, 1981.
page number: Mentioned and reproduced: P. 68-69, no. 36
url:
Wilson, J. Keith. "Powerful Form and Potent Symbol: The Dragon in Asia." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 77, no. 8 (1990): 286–323.
page number: Reproduced: p. 304
url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25161297
Tōyō kaiga no seika: tokubetsuten: Kurīvurando Bijutsukan no korekushon kara [東洋絵画の精華 : 特别展 : クリーヴラント美術館のコレクションから = Highlights of Asian painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art]. Nara, Japan: Nara National Museum, 1998.
page number: Reproduced: pp. 114–115, cat. no. 76
url:
Cunningham, Michael R. Unfolding Beauty: Japanese Screens from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001.
page number: Reproduced: pp. 14–15
url:
Admired from afar: masterworks of Japanese painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art [クリーブランド美術館展 : 名画でたどる日本の美 Kurīburando Bijutsukan ten: meiga de tadoru Nihon no bi ]. Tokyo: Tōkyō Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan, 2014.
page number: Reproduced: cat. no. 28, pp. 84–87
url:
Feltens, Frank, Yukio Lippit, and Aaron M. Rio. Sesson Shūkei: A Zen Monk-Painter in Medieval Japan. Washington, DC: Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian, 2021.
page number: Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 43–47, fig. 13; pp. 184–185, no. 10
url:
---
IMAGES
web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1959.136/1959.136_web.jpg
print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1959.136/1959.136_print.jpg
full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1959.136/1959.136_full.tif