Misty Dawn at the Seashore

Misty Dawn at the Seashore

Okada Hankō

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This gentle, unassuming picture depicts a seaside village at dawn as the mist gradually clears from the mountains and treetops. The lone scholar at the bottom of the composition seems to walk toward, not away from, the viewer, an anomaly in an otherwise tradition-bound painting that depicts a narrow gorge and a small port in a steeply rising vertical composition. Hankō, son and pupil of Okada Beisanjin, grew up within the literati circle gathered around his father. Earning their living as rice merchants, Hankō and his father could devote themselves to Confucian studies and, later in life, to the study of painting in the style of Chinese Ming and Qing masters.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Misty Dawn at the SeashoreMisty Dawn at the SeashoreMisty Dawn at the SeashoreMisty Dawn at the SeashoreMisty Dawn at the Seashore

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.