Gibbon on a Rock

A gibbon sits on a rock next to a body of water. A small bamboo bush is behind the rock, its reaching branches seeming to mirror the gibbon’s arms. All of this is rendered with an elegant simplicity: the brush strokes are minimal, but each is deftly applied to represent soft fur, rough rocky surface, or delicate leaves. This abbreviated style, originating in China, was associated in Japan with Zen Buddhism, as was the subject of a gibbon.

In Zen texts, the moon was often a metaphor for an enlightenment experience, and practitioners were encouraged to focus on the moon itself, and not the finger pointing at it, the finger symbolizing words that were only guides toward the experience. A gibbon shown reaching for the moon’s reflection in water often signified someone of limited understanding. Here, although the moon is nowhere visible, the gibbon stares into the water but reaches skyward. Is he poised somewhere between ignorance and realization?

Kano Yasunobu was from the next generation of Kano school painters after Kano Sanraku, whose work is behind you. He became the head of the Kyoto branch of the school in 1623. The signature is his formal title and art name, Hōgen Eishin 法眼永真.