Add to Collection

Add this item to an existing or new collection.
Harvard Art Museums
Incorrect Username, Email, or Password
This object does not yet have a description.

Gallery Text

Li Tieguai (Tekkai in Japanese) is one of the Eight Immortals, a group of legendary adepts in the Daoist pantheon. After decades of ascetic training, he achieved the ability to expel his spirit from his body. One day, while his spirit traveled to meet with other immortals, his physical body was cremated. When his spirit returned to earth, it was forced to take up residence in the corpse of a beggar. Li is shown here in this disheveled state, exhaling his spiritual self once more. Unusually, Shōhaku is said to have painted from the feet upward. The exaggerated length of this painting gives full expression to Li’s supernatural powers as he transports himself from the physical realm into the ether.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
TL42642.9
People
Soga Shōhaku 曾我蕭白, Japanese (Ise 1730 - 1781 Kyoto)
Title
The Immortal Li Tieguai
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
hanging scroll, painting
Date
c. 1765
Places
Creation Place: East Asia, Japan
Period
Edo period, 1615-1868
Culture
Japanese
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/20478

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2600, East Asian Art, East Asian Painting and Decorative Arts
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Hanging scroll; ink on paper
Dimensions
painting proper: H. 126.8 × W. 27.7 cm (49 15/16 × 10 7/8 in.)
overall mounting, including roller ends and suspension cord: H. 202 × W. 52.2 cm (79 1/2 × 20 9/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • signature: 蛇足軒蕭白 [Jasokuken Shōhaku]
  • seal: upper; square, relief: 蕭白 [Shōhaku]
  • seal: middle; square, intaglio: 曾我暉雄 [Soga Teruo]
  • seal: lower; round, relief: 鸞山 [Ranzan]

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Promised gift of Robert S. and Betsy G. Feinberg
Object Number
TL42642.9
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Publication History

  • Soga Shohaku burai to iu yuetsu : tokubetsu tenrankai, exh. cat., Kyoto National Museum (Kyoto, Japan, 2005), #92, pp. 289-291, 349.
  • Kano Hiroyuki and Rinsen Shoten, Soga Shohaku : Araburu miyako no eshi (Kyoto, Japan, 2007), #92, pp. 289-291
  • The Flowering of Edo Period Painting: Japanese Masterworks from the Feinberg Collection, exh. cat., Yomiuri Shinbunsha (Tokyo, 2013), p. 131, cat. 62
  • Kit Brooks, "'A School unto Himself'? The Formation of Soga Shohaku (1730-81), Orientations (September 2015), vol. 46, no. 6, p. 106, fig. 2
  • Rachel Saunders and Yukio Lippit, Painting Edo: Selections from the Feinberg Collection of Japanese Art, exh. cat. (Cambridge, MA, 2020), p. 63, fig. 51
  • Rachel Saunders, ed., Catalogue of the Feinberg Collection of Japanese Art, brochure, Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, 2021), pp. 198-199, cat. 199

Exhibition History

  • Shohaku Show, Kyoto National Museum, Kyoto, 04/12/2005 - 05/15/2005
  • The Flowering of Edo Period Painting: Japanese Masterworks from the Feinberg Collection, Tokyo Metropolitan Edo-Tokyo Museum, 05/21/2013 - 07/15/2013; Miho Museum, 07/20/2013 - 08/18/2013; Tottori Prefectural Museum, 10/05/2013 - 11/10/2013
  • 32Q: 2600 East Asian, Japanese, Chinese and Korean, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 06/04/2015 - 11/29/2015; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 06/08/2024 - 12/02/2024
  • Painting Edo: Japanese Art from the Feinberg Collection, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 02/14/2020 - 06/06/2021

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu