The hanging scroll bears the seal “Toyo” of Sesshu Toyo (拙宗等揚). A second seal, slightly above, likely reads “fu (ho)” and might be a later collector’s seal. Sesshu Toyo, written 拙宗等揚, and Sesshu Toyo 雪舟等楊 are considered the same person, and according to current scholarship the name change (homophones but different characters) occurred around 1457 when the painter was 38 years old. This allows to date the present work to the mid-fifteenth century.

There are two works of unknown authorship but of the same topic, inscribed by the monk Gugoku Reisai in 1449 and 1452, respectively (cf. Zen and Tenjin, fig. 21, 22, following examples ibid.). Facing the viewer and with hands folded in a polite salute, holding a plum branch in his right arm, is a common posture in early representations of Tenjin crossing to China, as is evident in the present work. Yet in contrast to the early representations, where Tenjin’s shoulders are broad and the waist is wide, his shoulders here are narrow and his waist is slender. In addition, the folds of his sleeves are complicatedly drawn, eyebrows wide apart, and the lines of his collar and shoulders appear to diverge unnaturally. The present scroll has these latter three points in common with some of the figures in the handscroll People from Various Countries (Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art, fig. 57), attributed to Sesshu. One could possibly say that these are common characteristics of his figure style.

Among works ascribed to Sesshu of Tenjin Crossing the Ocean to China, the only one that is on most accounts accepted as genuine is a scroll at the Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art, painted at the age of 82 (fig. 59). Gazing to the right, without the customary plum branch, and sitting on the trunk of a pine tree, the work at first glance appears unrelated to the present one. However, the complicated pattern of the sleeves, the wide-apart eyebrows and the unnatural lines of the collar are the same in both works. The posture of a sitting Tenjin is unusual, but if one was to imagine him rising up and taking a plum branch in his left arm one would arrive at a composition just like in Tenjin Crossing the Ocean to China, attributed to Sesshu, in the version with inscription by the Chinese poet Sa Dula (fig. 56). Unfortunately, that work nowadays cannot not be accepted as genuine anymore. Nevertheless, paintings attributed to Sesshu showing Tenjin in that pose exist in a certain number, and according to the scholar Shimao Arata one can presume that at some point Sesshu might indeed have created a composition like this. If one further changed the position to Tenjin facing the viewer, and the arm holding the branch from left to the right, the composition would be similar to a version by Sesson Shukei (a painter who placed himself in the lineage of Sesshu, fig. 35), or another by Soen (a disciple of Sesshu, fig. 36). The Sesson and Soen works are probably based on a painting by Sesshu, and as it has been pointed out by Aizawa Masahiko, the way the cloak worn by Tenjin widens towards the bottom is similar in these two works and the aforementioned People from Various Countries. This feature is also apparent here. Moreover, the present work and Soen’s version of Tenjin share the same wide-apart eyebrows. Sesson and Soen both show Tenjin placing his left hand in front of the right hand, like in the present work. This way, one can attempt to reconstruct a lineage leading back from the Okayama museum’s example to the work at hand. Certainly, this lineage is no more than a presumption, based only on the works done by Sesshu’s followers, or attributed to the master by tradition. But it suggests this work is one of the earliest examples of Sesshu’s Tenjin Crossing the Ocean to China.

Sesshu Toyo (monk painter; 1420–1506)
Priest painter of the mid-to-late Muromachi period. Sesshu, born in Akahama in Bitchu Province, counts as one of the most accomplished Japanese ink painters. After his move to Kyoto, he joined the temple Shokokuji, where he studied painting with Shubun. Later, he led the Unkokuan studio in Yamaguchi area. Sesshu joined one of the missions to Ming China to study Yuan and Ming style landscape and bird-and-flower painting. After his return to Japan he continued to travel widely.