Beasts of Legend: Animals in East Asian Art

Featuring beautiful and significant prints, scrolls,textiles, and three-dimensional works drawn from the Worcester Art Museum, MA,as well as from major American and international collections, this book tracesthe shared myths that shaped the representation of these animals whileacknowledging and highlighting their distinct regional meanings. It exploresthe dragon’s connections to water, wisdom and sovereignty; the tiger’ssymbolism of courage and protection; and the monkey’s shifting identity astrickster and demon-queller across East Asian art from the 14th century to thepresent. The volume combines iconic examples of works by Chineseand Japanese masters, including Gao Qipei and Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, andcontemporary diasporic artists like Mu Pan. It is envisioned as a requiredreading for a range of undergraduate and post-graduate courses on Japanese,Chinese, and Korean art and mythology.