#  Mystic Peak: Selections from the Jane and Raphael Bernstein Collection of Japanese Art, 2021-22 

 



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   ![Mystic Peak](/sites/g/files/omnuum3311/files/styles/hwp_1_1__960x960_scale/public/melissamccormick/files/mystic_peak_view.jpg?itok=UO8ZMAp9) 

 

Guest curated by Melissa McCormick for the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College. August 2021-February 6, 2022.

The show’s title comes from a work of calligraphy (below), a Zen kōan from the *Blue Cliff Record* (1125) in which a monk asks “What is the lone summit of mystic peak 妙峰頂?” The Daitokuji monk Seigan Sōi (1588-1661) who brushed the calligraphy answered the question with two brushstrokes that represent the wall-gazing Bodhidharma. The Bodhidharma, a word-picture (*moji-e*) made up of the character for “mind,” lies somewhere between text and image, neither and both; a perfect counterpart to the kōan.

Other highlights from the show include a rare portrait of the founder of the tea ceremony in Japan, Sen no Rikyū (1522-1591) by Tosa Mitsuoki (1617-1691), two ink paintings by Soga Shōhaku (1730-81), an important Genji screen by Kano Takanobu (1571-1618), and a medieval Big Dipper Star Mandala, with combinatory deities.

This show is part of a multi-faceted series of exhibitions of the Jane and Raphael Bernstein collection at the Hood, "A Legacy for Learning," with an accompanying [catalogue](https://www.amazon.com/Legacy-Learning-Raphael-Bernstein-Collection/dp/0944722520), encompassing 18th c. Hogarth prints, 20th-century American landscape and portrait photography, contemporary Inuit art from the Canadian Arctic, traditional Japanese art, and a collection of prints and paintings by Shinoda Tōkō (1913-2021). The exhibitions commemorate a major gift to the museum by the Bernsteins and their thirty-plus years of institutional support.

VIRTUAL TOURS:

Take a virtual tour of [Mystic Peak here](https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=tABAR9jnSFy), and an earlier installation during the museum’s closure of works by [Toko Shinoda here](https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=uMj6GGmSTDE&sr=-.84,1.34&ss=51), curated by Jessica Hong, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Toledo Museum of Art.

   ![Seigan Sōi](/sites/g/files/omnuum3311/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/melissamccormick/files/screen_shot_2021-11-24_at_12.11.29_pm.png?itok=cVKTu033) 

 

Photo credit: Installation photo by John Strong.