Artwork Page for Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals

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Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals

三十六歌仙図屏風

mid 1700s

attributed to Tatebayashi Kagei 立林何帠

(Japanese, active mid-1700s)
Culture
Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
Medium
two-fold screen; ink, color, and gold on paper
Measurements
Image: 170 x 182.8 cm (66 15/16 x 71 15/16 in.); Overall: 174.4 x 187.2 cm (68 11/16 x 73 11/16 in.); Closed: 94 x 4 cm (37 x 1 9/16 in.)
Credit Line
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 1960.183
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print
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Did You Know?

The green surface edged with stripes at the upper left of the painting represents tatami matting with a silk border.

Description

Fujiwara no Kintō (996–1075), a Japanese courtier, scholar, and poet, compiled select examples by the most celebrated composers of 31-syllable poems (waka) from the 600s to the 1000s. Painters soon made these “thirty-six poetic immortals” a favorite subject, traditionally presenting the poets in sequential, idealized portraits paired with their poems. In this interpretation, a chronologically impossible gathering of these great talents is in progress. The screen’s composition follows one devised by design virtuoso Ogata Kōrin (1658–1716).
A square, two-panel folding screen depicts a gathering of people with light skin tone seated so close together in the lower half that they cover the gold ground. They wear brown, green, red, orange, and blue robes that completely envelop their bodies. Most have black hair, some letting it fall down their back, others with it in hairstyles sticking up from their heads. Each person appears to be looking in a different direction.

Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals

mid 1700s

Tatebayashi Kagei

(Japanese, active mid-1700s)
Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)

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