The Chinese Poet Bai Juyi (Hakurakuten) Competes with Sumiyoshi, the Japanese God of Poetry Disguised as a Fisherman, from the series A True Mirror of the Imagery of Chinese and Japanese Poets
Artist/Maker
Katsushika Hokusai 葛飾北斎
(Japanese, 1760–1849)
Publisher
Moriya Jihei 森屋治兵衛
Date1833–34
MediumColor woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
DimensionsVertical nagaōban; overall: 19 15/16 × 8 11/16 in. (50.6 × 22.1 cm)
Credit LineMary A. Ainsworth Bequest
PortfolioA True Mirror of the Imagery of Chinese and Japanese Poets (Shika shashinkyo)
Object number1950.741
Status
Not on viewA gentleman in Chinese clothes with two attendants seems to have just come ashore from a Chinese-style boat. Mountains ringed with clouds in the style of a Chinese landscape emerge from the sea in the distance. This print depicts a scene from the nō play Hakurakuten, which imagines a meeting between the Chinese poet Bái Jūyì 白居易 (772–846), known in Japan as Hakurakuten, and the Japanese god of literature, Sumiyoshi Myōjin, who is disguised as a fisherman.
The print shows the beginning of their poetry competition, when Bái presents his verse, which is displayed by one of his attendants. The poem seems to describe the mountains seen in the background:
Green moss covers, like a cloth, the sides of rocks.
White cloud, like a sash, wraps the flanks of mountains.
Exhibition History
The print shows the beginning of their poetry competition, when Bái presents his verse, which is displayed by one of his attendants. The poem seems to describe the mountains seen in the background:
Green moss covers, like a cloth, the sides of rocks.
White cloud, like a sash, wraps the flanks of mountains.
Japanese Woodblock Prints: Selections from the Mary A. Ainsworth Collection
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (May 1, 1992 - June 14, 1992 )
Transformations: Chinese Themes and Images in Japanese Woodblock Prints
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (March 12, 1996 - May 27, 1996 )
A Life in Prints: Mary A. Ainsworth and the Floating World
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (February 3, 2015 - June 7, 2015 )
Ukiyo-e Prints from the Mary Ainsworth Collection
- Chiba City Museum of Art, Chiba, Japan (April 13, 2019 - May 25, 2019 )
- Shizuoka City Museum of Art, Shizuoka, Japan (June 8, 2019 - July 28, 2019 )
- Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts, Osaka, Japan (August 10, 2019 - September 29, 2019 )
Ukiyo-e Prints from the Mary Ainsworth Collection
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (January 14, 2020 - December 6, 2020 )
Collections
- Asian
This record was created from historic documentation and may not have been reviewed by a curator. Noticed a mistake? Have some extra information about this object?
Please contact us.
late 17th–late 18th century
