Artwork Info: Poem by Fujiwara no Norinaga on Paper Decorated with Butterflies

Preview

AR preview

Buy Print

Buy Hand Made Painting

Buy Image

Send

X-Ray

Poem by Fujiwara no Norinaga on Paper Decorated with Butterflies

Rinpa School
601
24.0cm x 35.0cm

Aki no uchi wa aware shiraseshi kaze no ne no hageshisa sōru fuyu wa ki ni keri While autumn lingers,sadness in the soundof the howling windssignals that winteris already on its way. —Trans. John T. Carpenter Silver-micaed butterflies are perched on stems of grass. They face to the right—the opposite of the movement of the calligrapher’s brush, and of the reader’s eye. Impressed on age-mellowed pale gray paper, the bright, ethereal butterfly motifs would normally be reserved for springtime. Pretty as they are, the image clashes with a poem that begins with the Chinese character for autumn, aki (秋), written with the two parts of the character reversed as a calligraphic flourish. The poem, by the courtier-poet Fujiwara no Norinaga (1109–1180), is from the imperially commissioned Collection of Japanese Poems of a Thousand Years (Senzai wakashū). The work is a section from a longer handscroll; the calligrapher’s black square seal, reading “Kōetsu,” would have marked the end of the scroll.

hon'ami kōetsu (1558 – 1637)

Hon'ami Kōetsu (1558-1637) was a pivotal Japanese artist of the Rinpa school, renowned for calligraphy, lacquerware, pottery & painting. Inspired by Heian aesthetics, his work profoundly influenced generations of artists and embodies the spirit of ea