Lions at the Stone Bridge of Mount Tiantai

Lions at the Stone Bridge of Mount Tiantai

Soga Shōhaku

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In this fantastical scene at the natural stone bridge on Mount Tiantai, in China’s Zhejiang province, a mother lion throws cubs over the cliff to see which will persevere to succeed in life by climbing back to her. Analogies are often made to artists or teachers testing pupils in similar ways. Mount Tiantai, home to the Tiantai sect of Buddhism, is also a sacred site for Daoist practice. In China as in Japan, mountains were long regarded as intermediary places between heaven and earth, where immortals and humans could meet. One of the “eccentrics” of Edo painting, Soga Shōhaku often featured exaggerated, restless brushwork as well as outlandish subject matter. This hanging scroll shows Shōhaku at the height of his creativity; he transforms a rarely depicted theme into a work that combines fluid, disciplined brushwork with dramatic composition and bizarre imagery.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Lions at the Stone Bridge of Mount TiantaiLions at the Stone Bridge of Mount TiantaiLions at the Stone Bridge of Mount TiantaiLions at the Stone Bridge of Mount TiantaiLions at the Stone Bridge of Mount Tiantai

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.