Twelve Poems from the New Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern
This elegant silk handscroll includes twelve poems from the Shin kokin wakashū, or New Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern (ca. 1206), one of the great imperially commissioned anthologies of waka (court poetry) of ancient times. During an age when there was a revival in classical Japanese court literature, this anthology was a frequent source for the revolutionary calligrapher Hon’ami Kōetsu, who studied Heian calligraphy styles but ultimately created his own distinctive mode of writing. The poems here are drawn from the autumn section of the anthology (poems 515–526).
The scroll is decorated with plant motifs imprinted by stamping, a departure from the traditional method of block-printing or hand-painting. Two hues of gold dust can be discerned, the more luminous perhaps a later addition.
The scroll is decorated with plant motifs imprinted by stamping, a departure from the traditional method of block-printing or hand-painting. Two hues of gold dust can be discerned, the more luminous perhaps a later addition.
Artwork Details
- 本阿弥光悦書 木版下絵和歌巻断簡
- Title: Twelve Poems from the New Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern
- Artist: Calligraphy by Hon'ami Kōetsu (Japanese, 1558–1637)
- Artist: Printed designs by a follower of Tawaraya Sōtatsu (Japanese, ca. 1570–ca. 1640)
- Period: Edo period (1615–1868)
- Date: ca. 1620
- Culture: Japan
- Medium: Handscroll; ink and gold on silk
- Dimensions: Image: 13 3/8 in. × 16 ft. 1/8 in. (34 × 488 cm)
- Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Mary Griggs Burke Collection, Gift of the Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, 2015
- Object Number: 2015.300.87
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
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Hon'ami Kōetsu
ca. 1600
Hon'ami Kōetsu
17th century
Hon'ami Kōetsu
ca. 1620
Hon'ami Kōetsu
17th century
Hon'ami Kōetsu
Tawaraya Sōtatsu
mid-1620s
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