Go Tigers!

In a nod to the exhibition Home of the Tigers: McKinley High and Modern Art, HoMA presents an artistic celebration of the tiger. The regal animal has a long and important cultural significance in East Asia, starting with its role as a symbol of yin energy in the Chinese yin-yang philosophical system, which had matured in China by the Han dynasty (202 BCE-220 CE). The symbolism of the tiger, and its consequent popularity as an artistic subject, spread from China to Japan along with Chinese classical literature and written language, and HoMA’s collection is especially rich in Japanese paintings of tigers. At the same time, virtually no Japanese artist before the premodern period had ever seen an actual tiger, and the depictions of tigers in this exhibition are imaginary, based solely on inherited tradition.  

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Toki Eishō (active late 18th century). Tiger and Pine. Japan, Edo period, late 18th century. Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk. Purchase, Richard Lane Collection, 2003 (2007.143).