Artist
Soga Shōhaku
(曽我蕭白; 1730–1781)
Catalogue information
Edo period, 1779
Hanging scroll; ink on silk
113.9 x 50.8 cm (44 7/8 x 20 in.)
Literature
See also
This artwork was published as catalogue entry 436 in Volume I of Art through a Lifetime.
Additional details
Signature
Painted by Soga Shōhaku
Seal
Jasokuken Shōhaku
Text
by Gazan Nansō (1727–1797)
Tendaisan
[Mount Tiantai] rises 48,000 feet high. / Fantastic crags, steep and sheer, lofty scarps reach for the sky. / At the top of a stone bridge there are arhats’ footsteps. / Daoist mystics can circle about on their cranes too. / Without ridding all disturbances, one must not tread forward. / Oh, how extraordinary! He must have once been an immortal. / Innumerable lions and cubs appear at the tip of his brush. / Leading one another, they walk up and down, ferociously growling and snarling. / Scaling peaks, fording streams, the cubs strive for first place. / Among them is a big principal with eyes like stars in the sky. / Unenlightened cubs seeking the secret to truth would fall from the precipice. / Whether they can reverse their fate depends on how they reform their nature. / The marvel of the painter’s superb skill cannot be expressed in words. / Though as superfluous as adding feet to a snake, may it last through endless generations.
Signature
Written in 1779 by Gazan Yōnansō
Seals
Soboku
; Yokuma Shūyō
Supplementary Transcriptions
Signature
曾我蕭珀圖。
Seal
蛇足軒蕭白
Text
台山屹立﹐四萬八千。
奇崖峻削﹐峨峨造天。
石橋在上﹐應真所躔。
羽士兼鶴﹐亦能盤旋。
自匪漏盡﹐步不可前。
嗚呼怪矣﹐曾生是僊。
百億師子﹐毫端現焉。
高低率走﹐猛氣虓然。
躡巉踰水﹐群兒爭先。
中有老大﹐眼如星懸。
迷子真訣﹐墜自巖顛。
翻身與否﹐素分何悛。
施技迴巧﹐叵以言宣。
蛇足蛇足﹐餘流長傳。
Signature
安永八年龍集丁亥峨山容南宗題。
Seals
鼠璞（朱文長方印）(relief, rectangle)
[水禾]摩周容（白文橢圓連珠印）(intaglio, oval double seal)