Tigress with Two Cubs

On a rocky cliffside near the base of an old tree, two tiger cubs play under the watchful eye of their mother. Tigers were a favorite subject for East Asian painters, and Korean paintings of tigers were highly influential in Japan, where painters took Korean examples as their models, especially during and after the 1600s. In fact, this painting itself has a long history in Japan. It has been handed down with a document written in 1863 attributing the painting to Tenshō Shūbun (active c. 1403–50), a highly celebrated medieval Japanese painter to whom many ink paintings in Japan were traditionally attributed. More likely, however, it was created by a Korean artist working in the 1600s before finding its way to Japan, where it remained until recently.