Immortals and Lofty Scholars

On the right screen, the Chinese immortal Tiegue ( J. Tekkai), known for the ability to blow his soul from his body, sits at the foot of a large pine tree. Directly to the left stands the Taoist immortal Lu Dongbin ( J. Ryo Dōhin), carrying a gourd over his shoulder, while on the right is an unidentified lofty figure. The hermit with a young attendant on the viewer’s left is thought to be the literati Su Dongpo ( J. So Tōba; 1036–1101). On the left screen, two figures sit opposite each other across a river. Portrayed on the right is a hermit based on the scholar-recluse Tao uanming’s
(365–427) “Homecoming Ode” (Ch. Linliu fushi), the figure fishing on the left may be the scholar Lu Shang ( J. Ryo Shō), who is also known as Taigong Wang ( J. Taikōbō).
The paintings were originally mounted as sliding door panels (fusuma) for a tatami-mat room, purportedly for Reitō-in, a sub-temple of the Zen monastery Kennin-ji. Traces of the door handles indicate that the left screen was formatted as four panels that stood beside an architectural pillar at the far right, followed at a right angle by the panels of the right screen, which were formerly composed of three wider sliding panels. The gaze of the hermits in the right screen goes off into the distance to the upper right corner, suggesting that the Taoist immortal Wang Ziqiao or the ancient Taoist Liezi in flight may have been painted on the now missing far-right panel. The figures are captured in rather rapid brushstrokes. The sharp edges of the branches and drapery, as well as the vivid and powerful straight lines and rhythmical curves, are beautifully rendered.
The work here is one of the few extant paintings by Kano Eitoku (1543–1590), the　finest master of the Momoyama period, making it an extremely important ink painting that appears to have been made in his last years of life.