Queen Mother of the West

Queen Mother of the West

Kano Osanobu

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Queen Mother of the West, the Daoist immortal known in China as Xiwangmu (Japanese: Seiōbo), was one of the most popular Chinese themes among painters in premodern Japan. Believed to reside on Mount Kunlun, a mythical paradise in the far west of China, she is a formidable deity in the ancient Daoist pantheon. In paintings, Xiwangmu is usually depicted with the image of a phoenix on her headdress, as in this work, and with an attendant holding a bowl of peaches, a symbol of longevity. The peaches in her orchard ripen every three thousand years. Osanobu, the last great master of the Kano school before the end of the Tokugawa regime, was also an antiquarian and copied ancient Chinese and Japanese paintings.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.