Illustrated Handscroll of the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets
- Person
-
賛者伝冷泉為相
- Date
-
制作年 Mid Kamakura period (13th century)
- Title
- サンジュウロッカセンエマキ
- Measurements
- 23.9×751.4
- Materials, techniques and shape
- Light colour on paper
- Collections
- Century Akao Collection
- Depository
- Institute of Oriental Classics (Shido Bunko) Campus Mita
いははしのよるのちぎりもたえぬべし小大君あくるわびしきかつらぎの神
The Thirty-Six Immortal Poets is a collection of 150 exemplary poems by 36 poets up to the middle of the Heian period (794–1185) including KAKINOMOTO no Hitomaro (dates unknown) and KI no Tsurayuki (died 945), and was compiled by FUJIWARA no Kintō (996–1041). The collection was highly valued as a standard for excellent poetry, and together with the popularity of kasen-e, in which poems were inscribed on pictures of highly-regarded poets from the end of the Heian period onwards, scrolls with the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets in the style of poetry contests were produced one after another. The Satake and Agedatami versions are representative examples of the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets, but they have been passed down as separate pieces mounted onto hanging scrolls, meaning this is the only complete handscroll of the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets dating to the Kamakura-period (1185–1333). The harmony between the light color of the poet portraits rendered in a technique reminiscent of fine ink-line drawing (hakubyō), and the waka poems inscribed in a distinctive Kamakura-period style of round and sharp calligraphy with both roundness and sharpness is magnificent. There is a great deal of variety in the selection of poems from each poet, making the combination of poets and poems of this version of the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets seem rare. The small inscriptions of the names of the poets are also unusual, and may have been done by the painter. Several connoisseurs of the Edo period attribute this work to REIZEI Tamesuke (1263–1328), but the style of calligraphy is closer to that of his father FUJIWARA no Tameie (1198–1275).
Description from the exhibition Catalogue "Letter-scape: Century Akao Collection, A World of Letters and Figures", Keio Museum Commons, April 2021
The courtier-poet Fujiwara no Kinto (966-1041) compiled a collection of waka (31-syllable Japanese poems) by thirty-six celebrated poets and poetesses (called Kasen or Poetic Immortals) from Kakinomoto no Hitomaro of the Nara period to Nakatsukasa, a poetess of the Heian period. This was the Selections of Poems by Thirty-Six Poets, otherwise known as the Poetry Contest of Thirty-six Poets, edited in the form of an uta-awase (record of a poetry contest in which pairs of poets rival for supremacy over each other) by ‘poets of the right’ and ‘poets of the left’. Members of the nobility in the Heian and Kamakura period, in which waka was closely connected with their life, used to read the anthology seriously in the hope for improvement of their poetic ability. The custom led to the birth of Kasen-e (Kasen pictures) consisting of portraits of the poets each with his or her representative poem inscribed by the portrait.Increased demand for such Kasen-e gave birth to stereotyped styles of Kasen portraits. A typical example is the one known as “The Handscroll of Portraits and Poems of Thirty-Six Immortal Poets, Satake Version” made in the 13th century in the Kamakura period. The present handscroll is one of such example. The poets and poetess with their respective individual characteristics are portrayed in fine, deft strokes of the brush.
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Identifiers
- Title (EN)
- Illustrated Handscroll of the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets
Physical description
- Weights and quantities
-
Quantity 1巻
- Attachments
- ・２代畠山牛庵折紙 寛元十二年臘月下旬 ・古筆了仲折紙 正徳三年巳暦林鐘上旬 ・松本利庵添状（牛庵家来） 古筆了任添状 ・極札 狩野探幽 畠山牛庵 古筆了任 ・外題 妙法院克胤親王（了任極あり）、羽二重包製 紫風呂敷 春慶塗 二重箱 懸子あり
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