Three Heroes of the Water Margin Capture the Bandit Queen Ichijōsei, from the series One Hundred Eight Heroes of the Theater Suikoden

Three Heroes of the Water Margin Capture the Bandit Queen Ichijōsei, from the series One Hundred Eight Heroes of the Theater Suikoden

Shunbaisai Hokuei 春梅斎北英

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The plot of the fourteenth-century Chinese novel The Water Margin (Shuihu zhuan), known as Suikoden in Japanese, relates the exploits of 108 anti-government outlaws, heroes during an era of political corruption. The group of rebellious heroes were based in a secret hideaway surrounded by marshes—the water margin— as seen in Hokuei’s idealized rendition. This is a completely fabricated theatrical scene, since the four famous actors never performed together on the Osaka stage. The actors portrayed, from right to left: Nakamura Shikan II as Kumonryū Shishin, or Nine Dragons; Nakamura Utaemon III as Nyūunryū Kō Sonshō, Dragon in the Clouds; Keishi (Nakamura Tomijūrō II) as Ko Sanjō Ichijōsei, the female figure; and Arashi Rikan II as Rōrihakuchō Chōjun, or White Stripe in the Waves.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Three Heroes of the Water Margin Capture the Bandit Queen Ichijōsei, from the series One Hundred Eight Heroes of the Theater SuikodenThree Heroes of the Water Margin Capture the Bandit Queen Ichijōsei, from the series One Hundred Eight Heroes of the Theater SuikodenThree Heroes of the Water Margin Capture the Bandit Queen Ichijōsei, from the series One Hundred Eight Heroes of the Theater SuikodenThree Heroes of the Water Margin Capture the Bandit Queen Ichijōsei, from the series One Hundred Eight Heroes of the Theater SuikodenThree Heroes of the Water Margin Capture the Bandit Queen Ichijōsei, from the series One Hundred Eight Heroes of the Theater Suikoden

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.