Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00010264About the Artwork
Long-armed gibbons form a chain to reach down from a tree, hoping to touch what they believe is the moon. In fact, the orb remaining beyond their grasp is the full moon’s reflection in the still surface of a pond or lake. The image is a common metaphor for the deluded mind in Buddhist thought. Gibbons do not live in Japan but were known to Japanese painters of the premodern era through paintings brought from China.
Inscriptions
signed: "Tan'yūsai hitsu"
Provenance
?–2015: George Gund III [1937–2013], bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art 2015–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Kano Tan’yū (Japanese, 1602–1674)
- Date
- 1600s
- Medium
- Hanging scroll; ink and light color on silk
- Dimensions
- Painting: 170 x 33.9 cm (66 15/16 x 13 3/8 in.); Overall with knobs: 234 x 40.1 cm (92 1/8 x 15 13/16 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- Japanese Art
- Credit line
- Gift from the Collection of George Gund III
- Accession no.
- 2015.478
More by Kano Tan’yū in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00010264
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