Title: Gajō Kyūsoku Kasen-zu (Picture Album of the Resting Poets), Circa 1600-1700. A Rather Lively Cycle of the Sanjurokkasen enjoying Leisurely Practices, With Thirty-Six Illuminated Silk Paintings and Poetry
Author: Poetry Originally Compiled by Fujiwara no Kinto
Condition: Good
An Early Edo Period, 17th century album entitled Gajō Kyūsoku Kasen-zu, or a Picture Album of the Resting Poets.
Also more famously known as the Sanjurokkasen, or Thirty-Six Immortals of Poetry, the original poetical composition was arranged by Fujiwara no Kintō of the Heian Period, being a group of Japanese poets of the Asuka, Nara, and Heian Periods as exemplars of Japanese poetic ability.
Since that, various editions of the Sanjurokkasen have been produced, from the Thirty-Six Female Immortals of Poetry, the New Thirty-Six Immortals of Poetry, and even the Late Classical Thirty-Six Immortals of Poetry, each with a unique selection of poets. This appears to be one of those later variants, with some post-Heian poets and figures in the mix.
Each leaf features a silk painting of a poet, as well as a silk strip of poetry, the backgrounds of the poets having been beautifully painted with gold spray. Each poet is painted in a lively and bright manner, and unlike classical compositions of the Sanjurokkasen, they are all doing something unique for leisure time, whether smoking, playing the drum, shaving hair, or something else. There is even one of a woman poet playing with her cat!
All the paintings and calligraphy have been laid down and bound in a brocade decorated album, with shining gold against swirling flower designs. There is an early, battered wooden box to accompany the album, preserving the contents.
One brocade decorated album in orihon format (28 x 28.8 cm full size, 23.3 x 19.5 cm painting size), 36 illuminated silk paintings, and 36 silk strips of poetry
This manuscript album is in good shape, with some wear and worm tracks to the covers. There is very little soiling or staining of any kind to the leaves. There is worming throughout, primarily affecting the empty space and some of the margins of the paintings, but affecting the central figures to three of them. One painting is loosening but still holding.