River and Mountain Landscape, Xiang Shengmo (1597-1658)

A painted image of the wrathful deity Ususama Myōō (烏枢瑟摩明王) dating to the 14th century (hanging scroll, ink & colors on silk from the collection of the Nara National Museum)

Una imagen pintada de la deidad iracunda Ususama Myōō (烏枢瑟摩明王) que data del siglo XIV (rollo colgante, tinta y colores sobre seda de la colección del Museo Nacional de Nara)

Crows and Moon by Kôgetsu (19th Century)

Fang Chuxiong (Chinese, b. 1950), "Untitled"

Auspicious Roe Deer

Giuseppe Castiglione

hanging scroll, ink and colors on silk, after 1751

For #WorldLemurDay:

Giuseppe Castiglione (Italian, 1688-1766) Cochin Lemur, 1761 Qing Dynasty, China Hanging scroll, ink & colors on silk 109.8 x 84.7cm National Palace Museum, Tapei

Lemurs are of course not native to China, but rather endemic to Madagascar. This one was given to the Qianlong Emperor by the King of Vietnam, who likely got it from European traders. It was then painted by Castiglione, an Italian Jesuit missionary who served as an artist in the Chinese imperial court. The background was likely painted by Jin Tingbiao (Chinese, d. 1767). A truly international history!

🆔 Castiglione’s lemur is easily identifiable as a Ring-Tailed Lemur (Lemur catta), but note the level of morphological detail - he included the antebrachial gland on the forearm (used for scent marking), and the tail appears to have suffered some loss at the tip.

Katsushika Hokusai, Woman Looking at Herself in a Mirror, ca. 1805, pigment/silk (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

Womb Realm (garbhakosa-dhatu or taizokai) mandala

Hanging scroll, colors on silk, Shingon tantric buddhist school, Heian period (794-1185), To-ji, Kyoto, Japan. Japanese National Treasure.

9th century

Kobayashi Eitaku, Izanami and Izanagi Creating the Japanese Islands, 1885, hanging scroll: ink and colour on silk, 126 x 54.6 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

20240113 Ensyu area 8 by Bong Grit Via Flickr: 移動して豊田佐吉記念館。復元された生家の床の間には秋葉神社の掛け軸。 @Sakichi Toyoda Memorial Museum, Kosai city, Shizuoka pref.（静岡県湖西市 豊田佐吉記念館）

Ghost, Shibata Gitō (1780-1819)

A painted image of the wrathful deity of love and attraction Aizen Myōō (愛染明王) dating to the 12th century (hanging scroll, ink & colors on silk from the collection of the Nara National Museum)

Una imagen pintada de la deidad iracunda del amor y la atracción Aizen Myōō (愛染明王) que data del siglo XII (rollo colgante, tinta y colores sobre seda de la colección del Museo Nacional de Nara)

Dragon and Clouds by Mori Sosen (Early 19th Century)

Hanging scroll of a Standing Beauty in a Dance Pose, mid 1600s, Japan.

A hanging scroll by Watanabe Kazan 渡辺崋山after Ike Taiga’s Horse Market in a Mountain Village. Early 19th century. Ink and colour on paper.

(Picture source)

Happy #WorldAnimalDay!

Suzuki Kiitsu (1796 - 1858) One Hundred Birds and One Hundred Animals Japan, Edo period, 1843 pair of hanging scrolls; ink, color, & gold pigment on silk From “The Life of Animals in Japanese Art” exhibition at National Gallery of Art (2019)

“Native birds and animals appear alongside an elephant, a camel, and other exotic species. A mythical phoenix perches on the mountain in the scroll at right, while a kirin flies through clouds in the one at left. A sacred animal with the horns of a dragon and the legs of a deer, the kirin is said to materialize when saints or benevolent rulers appear. With real and fantastic creatures coexisting in harmony amid blossoming plants from all four seasons, these scrolls suggest a Buddhist paradise.”