Daoist Master Fei Zhangfang
Sesson Shūkei Japanese
Old Chinese pictures of Daoist figures were frequently placed alongside Buddhist icons in medieval Zen temples, being ascribed talismanic power. Based on images of this type, which he gathered while traveling across Japan’s eastern provinces in the mid-sixteenth century, the monk-painter Sesson Shūkei created numerous renderings of Daoist masters. This painting depicts a moment in the biography of the semilegendary figure Fei Zhangfang, a failed disciple of the immortal Hugong. Sent home before completing his studies in Daoism, Fei tossed the staff his master had given him into a nearby pond, where it transformed into an auspicious blue dragon—as shown at lower right.
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