Woman Digging Bamboo Shoots in the Snow, or Parody of Meng Zong (Mōsō), from Twenty-Four Paragons of Filial Piety

Woman Digging Bamboo Shoots in the Snow, or Parody of Meng Zong (Mōsō), from Twenty-Four Paragons of Filial Piety

Suzuki Harunobu

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Harunobu treated a popular paragon theme with great innovation here, applying the playfully subversive spirit of ukiyo-e to the story of Meng Zong (J.: Mōsō), a boy whose filial piety prompted heaven to cause the sprouting of spring bamboo shoots in the dead of winter for his ill mother. The story is incorporated in a New Year's calendar print of bijin, or beautiful women. Combining a popular subject with the associations of a holiday, he made the virtuous theme entertaining to a general Edo audience.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Woman Digging Bamboo Shoots in the Snow, or Parody of Meng Zong (Mōsō), from Twenty-Four Paragons of Filial PietyWoman Digging Bamboo Shoots in the Snow, or Parody of Meng Zong (Mōsō), from Twenty-Four Paragons of Filial PietyWoman Digging Bamboo Shoots in the Snow, or Parody of Meng Zong (Mōsō), from Twenty-Four Paragons of Filial PietyWoman Digging Bamboo Shoots in the Snow, or Parody of Meng Zong (Mōsō), from Twenty-Four Paragons of Filial PietyWoman Digging Bamboo Shoots in the Snow, or Parody of Meng Zong (Mōsō), from Twenty-Four Paragons of Filial Piety

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.