Gama Sennin (Chinese Hou Xiansheng) and his three-legged toad
date: label: Date
content: 18th century
label: Period
content: Edo period
name: label: Artist
content: Soga Shohaku 曾我蕭白 (1730-1781)
notes: label: Label
content: Hou Xiansheng, known in Japanese as Gama Sennin, was one of many Chinese Daoist immortals who were assimilated into the repertoire of Japanese popular legends. Like the eccentric Zen Buddhist sages Kanzan and Jittoku (Chinese, Hanshan and Shide), Gama Sennin is portrayed in disheveled garments and is always accompanied by his three-legged toad, who rides nestled in his unkempt hair. Soga Shohaku, one of the important individualist painters who emerged in the eighteenth century, created this lively rendering. Shohaku cultivated a deliberately rough, spontaneous painting style that was full of energy and boldness. Here he sketches the cloak with just a few strokes of black ink while defining the details with swift strokes of lighter-toned ink.
label: Provenance
content: To 1904
label: Provenance
content: Bunshichi Kobayashi (circa 1861-1923), Boston, San Francisco, Tokyo, and Yokohama, to 1904 [1]
label: Provenance
content: From 1904 to 1919
label: Provenance
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Bunshichi Kobayashi in 1904 [2]
label: Provenance
content: From 1920
label: Provenance
content: Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]
label: Provenance
content: Notes:
label: Provenance
content: [1] See Original Kakemono and Makimono List, pg. 131, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.
label: Provenance
content: [2] See note 1.
label: Provenance
content: [3] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.
label: Collection
content: Freer Gallery of Art Collection
label: Exhibition History
content: Tales and Legends in Japanese Art (June 21, 2003 to January 4, 2004)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Art (July 1, 1974 to April 10, 1978)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Art: Paintings and Pottery (July 1, 1966 to May 2, 1973)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Art (January 1, 1963 to July 1, 1966)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Kobayashi Bunshichi 小林文七 (ca. 1861-1923) (C.L. Freer source)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)
place: label: Origin
content: Japan
topic: label: Topic
content: Edo period (1615 - 1868)
label: Topic
content: toad
label: Topic
content: Japan
label: Topic
content: kakemono
label: Topic
content: Japanese Art
label: Topic
content: Charles Lang Freer collection
setName: label: Related Online Resources
content: Google Arts & Culture
label: See more items in
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Charles Lang Freer
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: F1904.192
objectType: label: Type
content: Painting
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: Ink on paper
label: Dimensions
content: H x W: 200.8 x 55.2 cm (79 1/16 x 21 3/4 in)