Over Robe (Uchikake) with Bamboo
This rare uchikake is the work of Gion Nankai, a well-known poet and painter of the early Nanga (Literati) movement, which had roots in Chinese painting traditions and Confucian studies. Bamboo, vividly painted here in light and dark ink enhanced with a mist of gold powder, was a favored subject of Nanga artists who were largely based in the Kyoto area. Karakane Kōryū (1675–1738), a merchant and literary scholar from Izumi Sano (present- day Osaka), commissioned this over robe for one of his concubines; it was thereafter treasured as a family heirloom. In 1824, on the occasion of the marriage of one of Kōryū’s great-granddaughters, the literati poet Rai San’yō (1780–1832) wrote a laudatory kanshi (a poem written entirely in Chinese characters) about the unsigned garment, thereby establishing its provenance.
Artwork Details
- 祇園南海筆 白繻子地墨竹図打掛
- Title: Over Robe (Uchikake) with Bamboo
- Artist: Gion Nankai (Japanese, 1677–1751)
- Period: Edo period (1615–1868)
- Date: first half of the 18th century
- Culture: Japan
- Medium: Ink and gold powder on silk satin
- Dimensions: Overall: 64 3/4 x 48 7/8 in. (164.5 x 124.2 cm)
Sleeve length: 37 3/4 in. (95.9 cm); sleeve width: 12 3/4 in. (32.4 cm) - Classification: Costumes
- Credit Line: The Harry G. C. Packard Collection of Asian Art, Gift of Harry G. C. Packard, and Purchase, Fletcher, Rogers, Harris Brisbane Dick, and Louis V. Bell Funds, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, and The Annenberg Fund Inc. Gift, 1975
- Object Number: 1975.268.88
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
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Rai San’yō
1824
Japan
1824
Gion Nankai
first half of the 18th century
Gion Nankai
18th century
Gion Nankai
ca. late 1730s
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