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Kanô Sansetsu (1589-1651)
The Reunion of Su Wi and Li Ling
Ink on paper
The story of Su Wu and Li Ling dates to
the second century. The Han emperor of China sent Su Wu to negotiate
with the barbarian tribes on China's northern frontier. They
took Su prisoner, but he refused to cooperate with his captors,
who forced him to herd goats in the wilderness for nineteen years.
Below the barbarian's capital, which appears on the extreme left
side of this screen, Su meets Li Ling outside the cave where
he resides in exile. The Han emperor had also sent Li to negotiate
with the barbarians, but unlike Su, he succumbed to their pressure
and entered their service instead. This narrative, with its theme
of unwavering loyalty and patriotism, was extremely popular among
members of the warrior class in Japan, where devotion and duty
to one's lord were crucial characteristics of samurai culture.
Chinese subjects, themes, and narratives
were a specialty of Kanô painters. With this commission,
Sansetsu situated the meeting of Su Wu and Li Ling in an exotic
landscape that evokes the wintery northern extremes of China,
where barbarian tribes of various ethnicities waged war on successive
generations of Chinese rulers.
The Kanô family adopted Sansetsu
upon his marriage to the daughter of Kanô Sanraku, his
teacher. In the early 1600s, he became head of the school's Kyô
Kanô branch, so named because it was centered in the city
of Kyoto.
Ackland Art Museum, The University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Ackland Fund; 91.17
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