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Secondary sourcePainting16th century

The Three Vinegar Tasters

Kanō school artist · 16th century

A 16th-century Japanese painting showing Confucius alongside Buddha and Laozi, symbolising the unity of three teachings.

This painting depicts Confucius as one of three great teachers, showing how later generations placed him alongside Buddha and Laozi.

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Hanging scroll painting of three men in robes crowded around a large earthenware vat, each leaning over and dipping a finger or looking into it. Muted grey-brown background with pale, ink-outlined figures.
Kanō school artist, The Three Vinegar Tasters, 16th century. Hanging scroll, 83.3 × 47.5 cm.

About this source

What it is

This hanging scroll painting, made in the 16th century by an artist of the Kanō school during the Muromachi period, shows three robed men gathered around a large vat, each dipping a finger or looking into it. The figures represent Confucius, Gautama Buddha, and Laozi. The work is held as part of a museum collection and measures roughly 83 by 47 centimetres.

Why it matters

The painting illustrates a popular East Asian theme in which the three great teachers taste vinegar from the same vat but react differently, symbolising how Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism each interpret the same reality in their own way. It shows how, nearly two thousand years after his life, Confucius was still imagined as one of the great founders of thought alongside Buddha and Laozi.

Look closer

  • Why might an artist choose to show these three figures together around one vat?
  • What might their different reactions to tasting the vinegar suggest about each philosophy?
  • What does this painting tell us about how Confucius was remembered in Japan, far from where he lived?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Confucius and Laozi on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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