Title: Sanjurokkasen Emakimono (Thirty-Six Immortals of Poetry Picture Scroll), Circa 1800. A Tosa School Edition of this Poetical Series of Poets and Calligraphy, with Thirty-Six Paintings
Author: Poetry Originally Compiled by Fujiwara no Kinto; Tosa School
Condition: Good
A Late Edo Period, early 19th century emakimono, manuscript copy of the Sanjurokkasen, also more famously known as the Thirty-Six Immortals of Poetry, in handscroll format.
Selected by Fujiwara no Kintō of the Heian Period, they are 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.
The scroll depicts a full series of all Thirty-Six Poets, each one colorfully painted and shaded quite nicely, on delicate washi paper. The series appears to be one by the Tosa School and is possibly a student copy.
The paintings have been laid down and bound in scroll format, and there are jikusai (knobs) made of lacquered wood.
One emakimono (picture scroll) on washi paper, 28 x 900 cm
This handscroll is in good shape, with minor rubbing and wear to the decorated cover. There are a few creases and tiny tears at the beginning, and very little staining or soiling throughout.