Herdboy and Water Buffaloes Returning Home

Takahashi Sōhei

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Takahashi Sōhei began studying painting with Tanomura Chikuden (1777–1835), a leading literati painter and fellow native of Bungo Province (modern-day Oita Prefecture) on the far western island of Kyūshū. Sōhei first encountered Chikuden in 1822 when the master visited Sōhei's hometown of Kitsuki from Kyoto. Soon thereafter, Sōhei took Chikuden as a teacher and returned with him to Kyoto, where he was quickly recognized as one of Chikuden's most promising students. Active thereafter primarily in Osaka, Sōhei was so highly regarded by Chikuden that in the master's Record of Painting Teachers and Friends of Chikuden-sō (Chikudensō shiyū garoku), he is the only of Chikuden's disciples listed alongside many senior, leading artists of the day. However, by his mid-twenties, Sōhei had contracted an illness that forced him to spend most of his time back home in Bungo. Although his age at death, thirty-two, is known, there is some confusion about the exact year. He is thought to have stayed in Bungo permanently after 1830, and rumors that he had died began circulating in 1833, but he is believed to have survived a couple more years, until around 1835. A paucity of surviving works from the last two or three years of his life means that this work from 1832 may be among his last.

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