Description
This screen depicts an episode from the Tales of Ise, a 10th-century collection of poems and associated narratives in which the main character composes the following poem while drinking sake and viewing cherry blossoms: If, in this world of ours / All the cherry blossoms / Disappeared / The heart of spring / Might find peace.
Our hero relaxes on a shoulder rest, gazing at the flowers, his sake dish before him on a lacquered stand. A plump boy attendant monitors the sake dishes, a ewer at the ready. An associate sits with paper, ink, and brush, poised to record poems.
Our hero relaxes on a shoulder rest, gazing at the flowers, his sake dish before him on a lacquered stand. A plump boy attendant monitors the sake dishes, a ewer at the ready. An associate sits with paper, ink, and brush, poised to record poems.
Provenance
Chester Dale Carter (?–1980); (Sotheby's New York, NY, December 18, 1980 sale, lot 131, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) (December 18, 1980); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1980–)
Accession Number
1981.2
Medium
Two-panel folding screen; ink, color, lacquer, and gold on silk
Dimensions
Image: 175.3 x 190.5 cm (69 x 75 in.); Each side: 162.8 x 88.6 cm (64 1/8 x 34 7/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund
Tags
Painting Neoclassical & Romantic (1751–1850) Ink Panel Painting Silk Painting Gold Leaf Japanese
Background & Context
Background Story
Shibata Zeshin (1807-1891) was a Japanese painter and lacquer artist known for the innovative, technically accomplished manner that makes him one of the most important painters of the late Edo and Meiji periods. Nagisa Palace from the Tales of Ise depicts a scene from the famous literary classic the Tales of Ise in the innovative, technically accomplished manner that distinguishes Zeshin's best work from the more conventional painting of his contemporaries. The late 1800s date places this in Zeshin's final years, when he was producing the innovative paintings that combine traditional Japanese subjects with a distinctly modern technical virtuosity.
Cultural Impact
Nagisa Palace from the Tales of Ise is important in the history of Japanese painting because it demonstrates the innovative, technically accomplished manner that makes Zeshin one of the most important painters of the late Edo and Meiji periods. Zeshin's combination of traditional Japanese subjects with innovative technique—particularly his use of lacquer-like effects in painting—represents an important development in the transition from Edo to Meiji painting, and the Tales of Ise subject shows traditional literary content handled with modern technical virtuosity.
Why It Matters
Nagisa Palace from the Tales of Ise is Zeshin's innovative literary painting: a scene from the famous literary classic rendered in the technically accomplished manner that combines traditional Japanese subjects with modern technique. The late 1800s painting shows the transition from Edo to Meiji painting—traditional content with innovative execution.
