Sketch for a Painting of Scholars at the Game of Go

Kano Tan'yū

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Kano Tan'yū, the founder of the phenomenally successful Edo branch of the Kano school of painting, which continued to hold hegemony over all the artists throughout the Edo period, was in constant demand for his connoisseurship of Chinese and Japanese paintings of the past. In his later years, Tan'yū studiously made copies of the paintings that were brought to him for his judgment. The copies (shukuzu, or "reduced pictures") are indispensable records of the works still extant during his time. Symbolizing Confucian ideals, two gentlemen are engaged in a game of go, one of the Four Gentlemanly Accomplishments, while two observers are in conversation. Three other accomplishments required of learned gentlemen are music, painting, and calligraphy. Tan'yū signed his title hōin and his age as sixty-five.

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