On one side Narihira and the pilgrim; on the other, chrysanthemums and a brook

Maker(s)
Artist: Ogata Kōrin 尾形光琳 (1658-1716)
Historical period(s)
Edo period, late 17th- early 18th century
Medium
Ink, color and gold on paper
Dimensions
H x W: 35.6 x 22.7 cm (14 x 8 15/16 in)
Geography
Japan
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art
Accession Number
F1903.1
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Painting
Type

Fan

Keywords
Edo period (1615 - 1868), Japan, pilgrimage, river
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 Original Kakemono List, S.I. 433 Fan, L. 290, pg. 68, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.

[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.

Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)

Charles Lang Freer 1854-1919
Kobayashi Bunshichi (C.L. Freer source) ca. 1861-1923

Label

On one side of this circular fan is a painting illustrating a passage from the Tales of Ise, a work of narratives and poems probably composed in the tenth century by an unknown author. In this passage, travelers encounter a dark pass through the mountains. They sense the desolate remoteness from their familiar world in Kyoto and express this feeling in a poem:


Beside Mount Utsu
In Suruga
I can see you
Neither waking
nor, alas, even in my dreams.


On the other side of the fan is a painting of white chrysanthemums beside a stream. The flowers are painted in low relief, a technique known as moriage.


(Poetry translated by Helen Craig McCullough, Tales of Ise, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1968)

Published References
  • Toshiko Ito. Ise monogatari-e. Showa 59 Tokyo. fig. 26.
  • Doris Croissant. Sotatsu und der Sotatsu-Stil: Untersuchungen zu Repertoire, Ikonographie und Asthetik der Malerei des Tawaraya Sotatsu (um 1600-1640). Munchener ostasiatische Studien: Sonderreihe, Bd. 3 Wiesbaden. pl. 24.
  • Yoshiaki Shimizu. An Individual Taste for Japanese Painting. vol. 118, no. 258 London, August 1983. cover, end leaf.
  • Rinpa kaiga zenshu [Paintings of Rinpa]. 5 vols., Tokyo, 1977-1980. cat. 152, vol. 3.
  • Mayuyama Junkichi. Japanese Art in the West. Tokyo. pl. 242.
  • Zaigai hiho [(Japanese Paintings in Western Collections]. 3 vols., Tokyo. vol. 1: pt. II, p. 86.
  • Zaigai Nihon no Shiho [Japanese Art: Selections from Western Collections]. 10 vols., Tokyo, 1979 - 1980. vol. 5: pls. 60-61.
  • Yuko Ikeda. Rinpa no tanoshimi [Favorites of Rinpa]. Tokyo. .
  • Dr. John Alexander Pope, Thomas Lawton, Harold P. Stern. The Freer Gallery of Art. 2 vols., Washington and Tokyo, 1971-1972. cat. 50, vol. 2: p. 168.
  • Frank Feltens. Ogata Korin: Art in Early Modern Japan. New Haven, CT, October 12, 2021. p. 107 and 110, fig. 62 and 66.
  • Masterpieces of Chinese and Japanese Art: Freer Gallery of Art handbook. Washington, 1976. p. 131.
  • Martin Feddersen. Japanese Decorative Art: A Handbook for Collectors and Connoisseurs., 1st American ed. New York. p. 189, fig. 176.
Collection Area(s)
Japanese Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
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