Bugaku Dancers

Kano Yasunobu

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The costumed dances known as bugaku have been customary in Japanese court rituals and festivals since the eighth century, when the Nara court adopted them along with many other aspects of Chinese Tang-dynasty culture. The brilliantly costumed dancers and musicians are disposed here within a large format in a type of composition that was current among seventeenth-century artists of the Kano school. The scene is anchored on the left by musicians playing a drum, a flute, and a mouth organ on a dais covered by a large brocade awning. Thirty-five dancing figures fill the remaining panels, set randomly on the gold-leaf ground in poses and costumes that represent the classic bugaku repertory. At the upper left, a large signature, accompanied by one of Yasunobu's seals, reads Hōgen Eishin hitsu ("the brush of Hōgen Eishin"). Yasunobu used this honorary title, which he received in 1662, until his death in 1685.

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