曽我直庵筆　架鷹図押絵貼屏風|Tethered Hawks

Soga Chokuan|Ittō Jōteki (Shōteki)

before 1606 · Twelve paintings mounted as a pair of six-panel folding screens; ink and color on paper · Asian Art

Hawks tethered to their perches, awaiting release by their masters, symbolize military preparedness and valor. Their fearsome beauty and predatory features—sharp beaks, keen eyes, long curving talons—made them metaphors of martial training and the warrior spirit. The artist Soga Chokuan, renowned for his hawk paintings, received many commissions from leading samurai for either individual paintings or sets of tethered hawk images painted individually and pasted onto folding screens. This set is inscribed by Ittō Jōteki, one of the foremost Zen figures of his time. He eventually served as the 152nd abbot of Daitokuji in Kyoto, the most influential Zen temple in medieval Japan.

Artist

Soga Chokuan|Ittō Jōteki (Shōteki)

Date

before 1606

Medium

Twelve paintings mounted as a pair of six-panel folding screens; ink and color on paper

Culture

Japan

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Purchase, Mary and James G. Wallach Foundation Gift, 2018