Orchids and Rock ("Lofty Fragrance")

Object Details

• Artist

  Ike Taiga 池大雅 (1723-1776)

• Label

  Ike Taiga has long been acknowledged as one of the key artists to creatively reinterpret Chinese visual culture into an indigenous Japanese vocabulary. This painting, with a standard literati subject of orchids and rocks, evokes layers of Chinese literature and lore. The inscription in Taiga’s hand references the poem Li Sao (Encountering Sorrow) by the revered Chinese poet Qu Yuan (340–278 bce) and is variously translated as “Lofty Fragrance” or “Hidden Fragrance.”

  The unusual mounting is composed of fragments from a rubbing of the Tang dynasty stele Dazhi chanshi bei (Stele of the Chan Master of Great Wisdom), which was erected in 736 ce. Such rubbings were popular throughout East Asia. Here, they are used as decoration rather than to present a logical text sequence. Whether the mounting is contemporaneous with the painting is unclear; regardless, it deeply reinforces the effects of studied archaism and reverence for the Chinese tradition.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Arts of Japan: Edo Aviary and Poetic License (February 2 to August 4, 2013)

  Poetic License: Making Old Worlds New (February 2 to August 4, 2013)

• Origin

  Japan

• Credit Line

  Gift of Sanae Iida Reeves in memory of her father, Iida Yoshine

• Type

  Painting

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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• Date

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• Name

  Ike, Taiga

• Place

  Japan

• Topic

  Late Edo period (1716 - 1868), Art, Rubbing, Edo period, Japan, (1600 - 1868), Japanese Art, Orchids, Poetry

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Paintings