Poem-card from the Shinkokin wakashu (New Collection of Japanese Poems from Ancient and Modern Times) with Design of Pine on a Beach (1606): Art, History and Details

Poem-card from the Shinkokin wakashu (New Collection of Japanese Poems from Ancient and Modern Times) with Design of Pine on a Beach (1606) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Hon'ami Kōetsu (Japanese, 1558–1637); Tawaraya Sōtatsu (Japanese, c. 1570–c. 1640).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Tawaraya Sotatsu and Hon’ami Koetsu are both associated with the founding of the Rimpa school of Japanese painting. In this poem-card––one of 16 that survive––Tawaraya painted the gold and silver design, over which Hon’ami recorded poems from Shinkokin wakashu. The verses read from top to bottom and from right to left: "Even as I gaze, the thought of it is lonely. High in the heavens the moon-capital lies still in the sky of its dawning."

Object facts

• Title: Poem-card from the Shinkokin wakashu (New Collection of Japanese Poems from Ancient and Modern Times) with Design of Pine on a Beach
• Date: 1606
• Creator attribution: Hon'ami Kōetsu (Japanese, 1558–1637); Tawaraya Sōtatsu (Japanese, c. 1570–c. 1640)
• Culture: Japan, Momoyama (1573-1615) - Edo (1615-1868) periods
• Type: Painting
• Technique: card mounted on a hanging scroll; gold, silver, and ink on paper
• Dimensions: Overall: 132.1 x 43.2 cm (52 x 17 in.); Painting only: 20 x 17.4 cm (7 7/8 x 6 7/8 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1987.60

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Turner, Evan H. “The Year in Review for 1987.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 75, no. 2 (February 1988): 30–71.
• Sŏn, Sŭng-hye. The Lure of Painted Poetry: Japanese and Korean Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2011.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.