Tanomura Chokugai (1903–1997) 
Nine Likenesses of Heaven’s Protection 
Japan, c. 1926–1945 
Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper 
Gift of Terry Welch, 2021 (2021-03-095)

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The subject of this painting derives from a poem in the Chinese Classic of Poetry (Shijing), an ancient compilation dating from the 11th to 7th centuries BCE. The poem compares a harmonious country to nine different “likenesses” (ru in Chinese), which in later Chinese art came to symbolize the reign of a benevolent emperor. The subject was adapted into Japanese art as well, and here Chokugai appropriately depicts a landscape of rivers and mountains covered in pines and cypresses, with the sun and moon in the sky. The artist has cleverly reinterpreted the “southern mountains” of the original poem as the God of Longevity—associated with the Southern Pole Star—riding on an auspicious deer. 
 
Chokugai was the grandson of Tanomura Chokunyū. This is an early work and might have been intended as a wish for the success of the new Shōwa emperor (1926–1989). 
 
When Heaven’s protection is secured, everything prospers. 
It is like the mountains and the hills, the peaks and the mounds, 
Like the river’s course, everything is augmented… 
Like the revolving moon, like the rising sun, 
Like the longevity of the southern mountains, 
Nothing fails, 
Like the lushness of pines and cypresses, everything flourishes. 
 
Classic of Poetry, “Heaven’s Protection”