Title: Four Paintings and Four Sheets of Calligraphy from a Sanjurokkasen (Thirty-Six Immortals of Poetry) Series, With Two Other Poetical Sheets, Circa 1603-1700. Early Paintings of Poets and Calligraphy, with Illuminated Decorations
Artist: In the Style of the Tosa School; Poetry Originally Compiled by Fujiwara no Kinto
Condition: Very Good
An Early Edo Period, 17th century selection of 10 paintings and calligraphy in shikishi format from a copy of the Sanjurokkasen, also more famously known as the Thirty-Six Immortals of Poetry.
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.
Each painting depicts a different poet, with a rather high degree of skill applied to the compositions, with heavy detailing and considerable shading techniques used. The facial features are also rather varied and detailed, and all four figures have been highlighted with gold detailing, making them much more visually distinct. The level of skill, and the gold detailing more specifically, is rather comparable to some Tosa School albums and productions.
The sheets of poetry are written in various hands, and each one is decorated with subtle gold sprays in the background.
Four paintings and six sheets of calligraphy in shikishi format, 21 x 19 cm for eight pieces, 22.4 x 15.7 cm and 23.6 x 15.6 cm
These manuscripts are in very good shape, with some soiling and staining to the square pieces, and only minor soiling to the other two sheets.