Oxherding

Sekkyakushi

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This painting depicting a herdboy escorting an ox down a hillside path originally may have been one of ten hanging scrolls illustrating the Ten Verses on Oxherding, a Zen parable composed in eleventh-century China that became popular in Japan. If so, it likely represents the fifth verse, “Herding the Ox,” in which the herdboy has located his runaway ox and sets off on his way home. Another possibility is that it was inspired by a more secular Chinese painting of an ox and herdboy in which the image was meant to evoke the cyclical rhythms of the seasons. Although the biography of the painter Sekkyakushi remains unclear, he is believed to have been one among several followers of the early Zen monk-artist Kichizan Minchō (1352–1431), active in the painting atelier of Tōfukuji, a large Zen monastery in Kyoto.

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