Imperial Anthology, Kokinshu 花鳥下絵和歌巻

Object Details

• Artist

  Tawaraya Sotatsu 俵屋宗達 (fl. ca. 1600-1643)

• Calligrapher

  Hon'ami Koetsu 本阿弥光悦 (1558-1637)

• Description

  Scroll, consisting of 11 sheets of poems removed from backs of 4 doors, F1903.138-141, inclusive. Makimono.

• Label

  A collaborative work combining fine handmade paper, woodblock-printed designs in gold and silver, and calligraphy, this handscroll was reassembled from sheets that had been pasted in sections on the back of set of sliding paper doors (fusuma). Innovative artistic techniques were developed by the collaboration of a talented group of artists in Kyoto during the early seventeenth century. Sotatsu, a painter of fans and large folding screens, favored a painting technique that used pigments with water to create a pooled effect. These woodblock-printed designs of vines, cranes, and bamboo employ a similar techique. Control of scale, rhythm, and ink tone in Koetsu's calligraphy of Japanese poems provides a dynamic counterpoint to the underlying design.

• Provenance

  To 1903

  Bunshichi Kobayashi (circa 1861-1923), Boston, San Francisco, Tokyo, and Yokohama, to 1903 [1]

  From 1903 to 1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Bunshichi Kobayashi in 1903 [2]

  From 1920

  Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]

  Notes:

  [1] See Voucher 26, October 1903, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. See also, Accession List, Collections Management office.

  [2] See note 1.

  [3] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Rinpa Screens (February 25, 2023 to February 24, 2024)

  Sotatsu: Making Waves (Saturday, October 24, 2015 to Sunday, January 31, 2016)

  Freer: A Taste for Japanese Art (July 1, 2006 to January 1, 2007)

  Japanese Art in the Age of Koetsu (June 6, 1998 to February 15, 1999)

  Life of a Japanese Painting (December 1, 1995 to October 16, 1996)

  Japanese Art (May 9, 1993 to June 27, 1994)

  From Concept to Context: Approaches to Asian and Islamic Calligraphy (July 28, 1986 to February 6, 1987)

  Japanese Calligraphy (December 21, 1984 to November 7, 1985)

  Japanese Calligraphy (April 18, 1977 to September 13, 1977)

  Japanese Art (October 2, 1975 to October 8, 1976)

  Japanese Art—Paintings (September 16, 1970 to May 2, 1973)

  Special Exhibition—Japanese Art (October 16, 1963 to August 18, 1967)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Kobayashi Bunshichi 小林文七 (ca. 1861-1923) (C.L. Freer source)

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

• Origin

  Japan

• Credit Line

  Gift of Charles Lang Freer

• Type

  Calligraphy

• Restrictions and Rights

  CC0 - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0)

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1600s

• Name

  Kobayashi, Bunshichi, Freer, Charles Lang

• Place

  Japan

• Topic

  Charles Lang Freer collection, Art, Momoyama period (1573 - 1615), Japanese Art, Crane, Makimono

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Calligraphy (visual works)