The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of November 30, 2023

Jar with Scenes of Frolicking Xingxing

猩々戯画漆絵壺

1302

Japan, Kamakura period

(1185-1333)

Zelkova wood, covered with hemp cloth and colored lacquer, and bronze-plated wood fittings

Diameter: 47.2 cm (18 9/16 in.); Overall: 49.4 cm (19 7/16 in.)

Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund 1984.8

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

To make this vessel, a wooden form was covered with successive layers of lacquer, the clear sap of the highly toxic <em>Rhus</em> <em>verniciflua</em> tree.

Description

This jar features a design of a monkey-like animal ladling sake into his mouth from a vessel bobbing in waves, along with others trying on sandals and crossing a river. In the 1300s, Chinese literature was a powerful source of inspiration for artistic practice in Japan, and this scene was inspired by the exploits of the mythical xingxing, a beast of ancient Chinese lore for whom people left straw sandals and wine. The xingxing would then recite the names of the ancestors of those who had left them the gifts.

Inscriptions

Inscription

Dated 1302

Provenance
?–1984
(James J. Freeman, Kyōto, Japan, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1984–
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Yamane, Yūzō 山根有三, Takashi Hamada 山根有三, et al. Zaigai bijutsu [在外美術 = Selections of Japanese Art from Western Collections]. Tōkyō: Shōgakukan, 1994. Mentioned: pp. 228 and 236, no. 143–144
Cunningham, Michael R., Stanislaw J. Czuma, Anne E. Wardwell, and J. Keith Wilson. Masterworks of Asian Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1998. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 196–197
Tōyō kaiga no seika: tokubetsuten: Kurīvurando Bijutsukan no korekushon kara [東洋絵画の精華: 特别展: クリーヴラント美術館のコレクションから= Highlights of Asian painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art]. Nara, Japan: Nara National Museum, 1998. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 94–95, cat. no. 62
Grossman, Nancy, James T. Ulak, Marjorie Williams, and Laurence Channing. Art of Japan: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2005. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 48
Freeman, J. "Just One Thing After Another." Impressions: Official Publication of the Ukiyo-E Society of America 39, pt. 1 (2018): 67-129. Reproduced: p. 77, fig. 5
Exhibition history

Year in Review for 1984. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 3-May 5, 1985).

Asian Autumn: Masterpieces from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 17, 1991-January 5, 1992).

Highlights of Asian Paintings from The Cleveland Museum of Art. Nara National Museum (organizer) (February 21-March 29, 1998); Suntory Museum of Art (April 28-June 21, 1998).

Stories in Japanese Art (Japanese art rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 8, 2021-April 3, 2022).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1984.8