Title: Satake-bon Sanjurokkasen (The Satake-bon Illustrated Thirty-Six Immortal Poets), Circa 1750-1850. An Extraordinarily Rare and Beautifully Painted Manuscript Copy after the Original Kamakura Scroll, with Thirty-Six Paintings
Author: After Satake Family; Poetry Originally Compiled by Fujiwara no Kinto
Condition: Very Good
An extraordinarily rare, Mid to Late Edo Period, 18th to mid 19th century manuscript entitled Satake-bon Sanjurokkasen, or The Satake-bon Illustrated Thirty-Six Immortal Poets. This is the complete work in one manuscript.
Selected by Fujiwara no Kintō of the Heian Period, the Sanjurokkasen 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.
This example is a copy after the Satake-bon scroll in particular, produced during the Kamakura Period, and passed down through the Satake Family of the Akita Domain, before being sold in 1919 and sold in parts, due to the scroll’s complete and extravagant price. Today, the 37 fragments existing in private collections, institutions, and other collection, though the Kyoto National Museum was able to exhibit 31 of the 37 fragments in 2019, with permission from their respective owners on loan.
The paintings are faithful renditions of the original Kamakura Period copy, painted vividly, and accentuated with silver inks as well to brighten the pieces.
Manuscript copies of the Satake-bon, even Edo Period copies, are extraordinarily rare, both in institutional holdings and at auction or public catalog sales. A copy of such quality would have been produced using the original scroll for visual reference.
One manuscript in orihon format (26.9 x 38.8 cm), 19 leaves
This manuscript is in very good shape, with heavy rubbing and wear to the binding, and two sharp creases. There is some foxing and soiling throughout, the pages toned.