Ink drawing of Chinese sages by artist Kanō Motonobu
Image Credit

Kanō Motonobu (1476-1559), Chinese Sages in a Landscape (detail). Japan, Muromachi period (1336-1573), Ink on paper. Denver Art Museum: Gift of John and Celeste Fleming, 1977.161

The Sages of Sōrin: Paintings by Kano Motonobu

with Matthew McKelway, Columbia University Takeo and Itsuko Atsumi Professor of Japanese Art History
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Kanō Motonobu (1476-1559), Chinese Sages in a Landscape (detail). Japan, Muromachi period (1336-1573), Ink on paper. Denver Art Museum: Gift of John and Celeste Fleming, 1977.161

This is an online event. It does not take place at the museum.

Overview

The exciting discovery of room panels by Kano Motonobu (1477-1559) from the temple Zuihōin offers an opportunity to reassess the meaning of architecturally specific paintings in late medieval Japan.

Zuihōin, founded in the mid-sixteenth century by the priest Tesshū Sōkyū and supported with the financial backing of the daimyo Ōtomo Sōrin, is one of very few subtemples of Daitokuji monastery that preserves its original abbot’s quarters (hōjō).

The panels in the Denver Art Museum's collection, and another set of folding screens in the Seikadō Bunko Art Museum in Tokyo, allow us to reconstruct the interior space of Zuihōin and examine it through comparison with other Daitokuji subtemples. What emerges is a complex interplay of contemporary Zen priests and ancient Chinese sages, Daoist cosmology, and local topography all brought inside the liturgical and residential spaces of the abbot’s quarters.

The lecture will also reflect on the later history of the panels in order to retrace their journey from a Kyoto temple to an American museum.

Online Event
Ticket required, discount for members, free for Museum Friends and Students

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This event has automated closed captions through Zoom. To request live captioning (CART), a sign language interpreter, or any other service, please email access@denverartmuseum.org at least five (5) business days in advance of the program. We will make every effort to provide accommodation for requests made outside of that window of time.