The Daoist Immortal Liezi

Kano School

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

These panels depict Daoist immortal Liezi (Japanese: Resshi), who flies away on a cloud, while awestruck figures discuss his mysterious disappearance. These door panels, or fusuma, originally decorated the west wall in the central room of the abbot’s quarters (hōjō) at Ryōanji, a Zen temple in Kyoto. They are part of a set of forty panels depicting assorted Confucian and Daoist figures that were installed in the three rooms. Evidence suggests that this work was created by painters of the Kano studio under the direction of a son of Kano Eitoku (1543–1590). One candidate is Kano Kotonobu, Eitoku’s third son, who served as a painter for Ryōanji’s chief patrons, the Hosokawa family, after his father’s death. The screens were dispersed and sold to private collectors in the early twentieth century. While some panels from the central room remain in Japan, panels from the adjoining room have been acquired by the Seattle Art Museum and other collections.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art