Daoist Sage and Hawk

Soga Nichokuan

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

On the right panel of this screen an elderly man sits in the shade of a grove of trees, a walking stick in one hand. His bald head, scrawny limbs, and bare feet are delineated with smooth brush lines in light ink, while dark spots mark his eyes and the corners of his downturned mouth. The painting was cut down from a larger work, which may have held clues to the identity of the seated figure. The companion piece, on the left panel, depicts a hawk perched on the branch of an oak tree. Soga Nichokuan, well known as a painter of hawks, most likely worked in the vicinity of the port city of Sakai, south of Osaka.

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