Selections from the Collection of Japanese Poems from Ancient and Modern Times (Kokin wakashū) with Design of Pines Along the Shore (1600s): Art, History and Details

Selections from the Collection of Japanese Poems from Ancient and Modern Times (Kokin wakashū) with Design of Pines Along the Shore (1600s) 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:

The calligrapher and craftsman Hon’ami Kōetsu frequently collaborated with Tawaraya Sōtatsu, a painter who ran a studio that produced fans and screens. Sōtatsu’s work featured abstracted and flattened shapes, fields of color and gold, and asymmetry. In particular, motifs that appeared in small scale, such as flora and fauna, in early decorated Japanese papers were painted in a larger scale—blown up as if seen under a magnifying glass. For this handscroll, Kōetsu brushed poems from the autumn section of a poetry anthology onto silk with a landscape of pines in gold and silver likely painted by Sōtatsu.

Object facts

• Title: Selections from the Collection of Japanese Poems from Ancient and Modern Times (Kokin wakashū) with Design of Pines Along the Shore
• Date: 1600s
• Creator attribution: Hon'ami Kōetsu (Japanese, 1558–1637); Tawaraya Sōtatsu (Japanese, c. 1570–c. 1640)
• Culture: Japan, Momoyama period (1573-1615) to Edo period (1615-1858)
• Type: Calligraphy
• Technique: handscroll; ink on silk with gold and silver
• Dimensions: Average: 32.7 x 549 cm (12 7/8 x 216 1/8 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Handscroll
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1972.67

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
• Lee, Sherman E, Ursula Korneitchouk, Michael R Cunningham, Ursula Korneitchouk, Cleveland Museum of Art, Japan House Gallery, Japan Society (New York, N.Y.), and Japan House Gallery. One Thousand Years of Japanese Art (650-1650): From the Cleveland Museum of Art: Catalogue. New York: Japan Society, 1981.
• Fischer, Felice and Edwin A. Cranston. The Arts of Honʼami Kōetsu: Japanese Renaissance Master. Philadelphia, PA: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2000.

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.