Artist: Kano Sansetsu
Date: 1646
Size: 175 x 486 cm
Technique: Gold Leaf
The massive black trunk of an ancient plum tree with bending, twisting branches spans nearly sixteen feet across four sliding panels. The reptilian old tree sprouts blossoms, which convey the atmosphere of a cold early spring morning and symbolize birth and renewal. These panels originally formed one wall of a room in the Tenshōin, a subtemple of Myōshinji, a Zen temple in Kyoto. During the 1880s, they were sold to a private collector and trimmed at the top to conform to the smaller dimensions of his home. On the reverse of these panels was a composition depicting the Chinese theme of the Eight Daoist Immortals, which formed a wall in the adjacent room. This composition was later separated and remounted, and it is now in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
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