Japanese woodblock prints

edit

20th century

edit

19th century

edit

18th century

edit

17th century

edit

16th century

edit

15th century

edit

Japanese calligraphy and poetry

edit
 
The poem was written by Kamo no Chōmei 鴨長明, the self-isolated monk who lived in medieval Japan at the end of XII and beginning XIII century.

ながむれば に
もの おもう あき に
また わが み
ひとつ の みね の
まつ かぜ

Gazing into the distance,
in a melancholy autumn mood,
is it for me alone that winds
howl through boughs of pines
on that solitary peak?

[note 1] —Trans. John T. Carpenter. (Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art).
Image above: Imaginary portrait of Kamo no Chōmei, this graphical impression of the poet was created by the Japanese artist Kikuchi Yosai 菊池 容斎 (1781-1878).
Note:
Forth line in the translation of the poem refers to a literal meaning of Japanese characters kanji "松風" (Matsukaze), which direct translation is 'wind blowing against the forest of pine trees'. The same characters were also used in Japanese literature as expression to describe a desolate or state of waiting. [1] In calligraphic representation of the poem by Hon'ami Kōetsu, the under-painting depiction of cherry blossoms (image on the left) seemed clashing with the poem's mood of melancholy.

References

edit

Footnotes

edit
  1. ^ Forth line in the translation of the poem refers to a literal meaning of Japanese characters kanji "松風" (Matsukaze), which direct translation is 'wind blowing against the forest of pine trees'. The same characters were also used in Japanese literature as expression to describe a desolate or state of waiting.[1]

References

edit
  1. ^ a b Hare (1989), 173.

Sources

edit
  • Nagata, Seiji (2005). 北斎展 [Hokusai Exhibition.] (in jap). Tokyo: Nihon Keizai Shinbunsha. p. 190.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  • Asano, Shūgō; Clark, Timothy (2017). 北斎 : 富士を超えて [Hokusai: Beyond Mount Fuji.] (in jap). Osaka: Abeno Harukasu Bijutsukan. p. 82.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  • Clark, Timothy (2017). Hokusai: Beyond the Great Wave. London: Thames & Hudson. p. 114.
  • Munsterberg, Hugo (1982). The Japanese Print: A Historical Guide. New York: John Weatherhill Inc. p. 51.
  • Addiss, Stephen (1996). How to Look at Japanese Art. New York: Harry N. Abrams. p. 98.
  • Waterhouse, David (2004). "Harunobu in Chiba (Review)". Impressions. 26 (Japanese Art Society of America): 118–126. JSTOR 42597835.
  • Carpenter, John (2012). Designing Nature: The Rinpa Aesthetic in Japanese Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 66.
  • Lippit, Yukio; Ulak, James (2015). Sōtatsu. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. pp. 210–211.
edit

Keisai Eisen

edit

Suzuki Harunobu

edit