Section of a Handscroll with Waka and Underpainting of Pines early 17th century Hon'ami K?etsu ????? This detached section of a long poetry handscroll was remounted to serve as a self-sufficient calligraphic composition, with a single complete waka (31-syllable court verse) inscribed atop an abstract landscape of pine trees painted in gold. The calligraphy is in the distinctive style of Hon’ami K?etsu, rendered in a dynamic yet ever so elegant array of “scattered writing” (chirashigaki) rhythmically composed in nine columns—some long, some comprising but a single character—that playfully regro
Section of a Handscroll with Waka and Underpainting of Pines early 17th century Hon'ami K?etsu ????? This detached section of a long poetry handscroll was remounted to serve as a self-sufficient calligraphic composition, with a single complete waka (31-syllable court verse) inscribed atop an abstract landscape of pine trees painted in gold. The calligraphy is in the distinctive style of Hon’ami K?etsu, rendered in a dynamic yet ever so elegant array of “scattered writing” (chirashigaki) rhythmically composed in nine columns—some long, some comprising but a single character—that playfully regroups the 5-7-5-7-7 syllable structure of the poem into a new composition. The overall balance of this constellation of kanji and kana characters works well, with a focal point of the composition in the cluster of boldly inked characters “aki no tsuyu” ???. These three characters reveal two other trademark features of K?etsu’s hand. First, he has reversed the two parts of the character aki ??so that ? is on the left, rather than ?. Second, he has rendered the particle no in a highly cursive form of the phonetically equivalent character n? ?, in order to make it as prominent as the kanji characters that precede and follow anonymous poem is from Book 11, “Love,” of the Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern (Kokin wakash?, no. 545), and evokes the imagery of a woman crying into the sleeve of her robe, distraught over lost or unrequited love. It reads: ????????????????????????????????Y? sareba itodo higatakiwa ga sode niaki no tsuyu saeokisawari-tsutsuAs evening descends,it becomes ever harderto dry my tear-soaked sleeve,as the autumn dew also dampens it drop by drop. (Trans. John T. Carpenter). Section of a Handscroll with Waka and Underpainting of Pines. Underpainting attributed to Tawaraya S?tatsu ???? (Japanese, ca. 1570–ca. 1640). Japan. early 17th century. Hanging scroll; ink on gold decorated paper. Edo period (1615–1868). Paintings
Size: 4000px × 2753px
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