“Chinese Lions”
Today, we travel to Japan, to the bold and strong brushwork of the Kanō school of art.
This large-sized pair of folding screens with six panels, titled “Chinese Lions”, are made with ink and gold leaf on paper. This set of screens has often been credited to the Japanese master artist, Kanō Eitoku, who lived in the latter half of the sixteenth century.
However, it has recently been determined that the right screen is by Kanō Eitoku from the Azuchi-Momoyama period, and that the left screen is actually by Kanō Tsunenobu, who lived a century later during the Edo period. The left screen was made to match the right and the two screens have been passed down together ever since.
Lions were regarded as symbols of strength in Persia and India. The knowledge and mystique surrounding lions traveled along the silk road all the way to Japan. In Japan, there were no lions, but they were regarded as sacred beasts. Kanō Eitoku created this image without ever having actually seen a lion. The patterning on the body suggests that Kanō Eitoku used creative inspiration from tigers, which he may have seen in his lifetime.
“Chinese Lions” is currently on display at the Imperial Household Agency and is part of the collections of the Sannomaru Shozokan, or The Museum of the Imperial Collections, in Tokyo, Japan.
For more on Kanō Eitoku, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
