Description:
two men seated at lower right and left below text; man; costume/uniform
Label Text:
The scroll depicts the poets Fujiwara no Kanesuka (877 - 933) and Fujiwara no Toshitada (1073 - 1123). The poems used here are numbers 46, 47 and 48 from the collection of poems "jidai fudo uta-awase" (Competition of Poems from Different Periods).
The genre of painting known as Kasen-e, handscrolls depicting famous poets accompanied by examples of their poems, first appeared at the end of the twelfth century. It gained considerable popularity over the succeeding centuries. Frequently the poets were divided up into two groups thereby creating an imaginary poetry competition of the kind that had been popular at the Heian court. This fragment is a section of an illustrated version of the "Competition Between Poets of Different Periods" compiled by Emperor Go-Toba (ruled 1183 - 1198). It depicts the competition between the Heian period courtier poets Fujiwara Kanesuke and Fujiwara Toshitada. The Third pair of poems reads:
Left (Kanesuke)
Like the waters that flow
From the Izumi river
On the Mika Plain,
When might I have seen her
To fall this much in love?
Right (Toshitada)
There is no place
To drop anchor
For the fisherman's boat
Caught in the receding tide
In the Sea of Ise
(translation by Thomas Rohlich)
Kasen-e first gained popularity for use in the tea ceremony in the late seventeenth century.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+1983.19 |
