A MODERN JOURNEY TO THE WEST
This series depicts the tales of Sun Wukong (Jp: Songoku), the legendary monkey king of the 16th-century novel Journey to the West (Xiyouji), believed to be written by Wu Cheng'en (1500-1582). Though the novel consists of 100 chapters, only twenty-one designs have been identified thus far. The texts in the cartouches are attributed to the author Sumida Ryoko (also known as Hosojima Seizo).
The epic tale focused on a monkey is based on the life of a historical figure, the monk Xuanzang (602-664; Jp: Genjo), who traveled from China to India (known as the Western Kingdoms in Tang Dynasty China) to retrieve sacred Buddhist scriptures. By the 14th century the story of his journey had evolved into a legendary quest for scriptures from heaven and, ultimately, enlightenment, and had been adapted as popular plays, operas, and novels. In the original version of the tale the monk Xuanzang is accompanied by a spirit in the form of a pig, an old monk made of sand, and the Monkey King Sun Wukong, who assumes a greater role after the first seven chapters. The portions pertaining to Sun Wukong were the focus of an English translation of the novel, which was condensed and edited by Arthur Waley (1889-1966) and published under the title, Monkey, in 1942. In this and other retellings, Sun Wukong is the protagonist of the tale in which he uses his magical powers in a personal journey for spiritual enlightenment and immortality. Our quotations of Journey to the West are borrowed from WJF Jenner's 1955 translation, republished by Collinson Fair in 2005.