# Gibbons Reaching for the Moon

- By: Kano Tan’yū (Japanese, 1602–1674)
- Date: 1600s
- Medium: Hanging scroll; ink and light color on silk
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: Painting: 170 x 33.9 cm (66 15/16 x 13 3/8 in.); Overall with knobs: 234 x 40.1 cm (92 1/8 x 15 13/16 in.)
- Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
- Credit line: Gift from the Collection of George Gund III
- Museum: [Cleveland Museum of Art](https://clevelandart.org/art/2015.478)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/cma/2015.478/2015.478_web.jpg
- Who can see it: Little Ones profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Long-armed gibbons form a chain to reach down from a tree, hoping to touch what they believe is the moon. In fact, the orb remaining beyond their grasp is the full moon’s reflection in the still surface of a pond or lake. The image is a common metaphor for the deluded mind in Buddhist thought. Gibbons do not live in Japan but were known to Japanese painters of the premodern era through paintings brought from China.