Tiger in Wind

after Maruyama Ōkyo (Japanese, 1733–1795)

1800s

Medium
hanging scroll; ink on paper
Classification
Painting
Dimensions
Painting: 134.6 x 58 cm (53 x 22 13/16 in.); Mounted: 194 x 73 cm (76 3/8 x 28 3/4 in.)
Culture
Japan, Edo period (1615–1868) to Meiji period (1868–1912)
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art, Japanese Art
Credit line
Sundry Purchase Fund
Rights
Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed

View at the Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

The seals appended to the inscription on this painting suggest that the text was brushed by Yūjō (1723–1773), an imperial prince who became a Buddhist monk and was abbot of Enman'in at Miidera. The line is from a poem attributed to a Yuan dynasty poet, Yu Ruyu (dates unknown), and describes the sound of a fierce wind lashing the ground. Wind is associated with the roar of the tiger. Yūjō was Maruyama Ōkyo's most important patron as a young artist, and this painting has a signature asserting that Ōkyo created it in 1772, the year before Yūjō's death. While Yūjō produced a preface for a now famous set of handscrolls he commissioned Ōkyo to paint, and a number of Ōkyo's compositions for Enman'in survive, this work would appear to be one imagining their relationship, as opposed to a genuine piece.