Hashimoto Kankai (b. 1899) 
Queen Mother of the West 
Japan, c. 1925–1941 
Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk 
Gift of Terry Welch, 2021 (2021-03-116)

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The scene presented here is not Japanese, but Chinese. The architecture, with red-lacquered latticework and a round window framing a mini-garden of bamboo against a white wall, is characteristic of the elegant gardens of southern China, as is the zheng zither resting on a heavy-legged stand. 
 
At the same time, this is no ordinary sitter—from the phoenix headdress, we know she is the highest of all deities in the Chinese female pantheon, the Queen Mother of the West (Xiwangmu, Seiōbo in Japanese). According to legends familiar to most literate Japanese trained in the Chinese classics, Xiwangmu oversaw the hierarchy of female deities from her divine palace in the remote Kunlun Mountains far to the west. There she tended a grove of peach trees that bore fruit only once every several thousand years, upon which all the immortals would gather for a magnificent banquet. 
 
Kankai’s depiction is unusual in many regards, including the lack of peaches. Most remarkable is the fact that Xiwangmu’s breasts are exposed. When European art, with its emphasis on the nude, was first introduced into Japan, it was controversial. However, by the 1920s–1930s artists were regularly experimenting with nudes, an exceptional example being Hashimoto Chōshū’s sculpture Enlightenment also in this exhibition.