The Poets Henjō and Jichin, from Stylus-Illustrated Competition of Poets of Different Periods (Mokuhitsu jidai fudō uta awase-e)

The basis of Fujiwara Kintō's selection of the Sanjūrokkasen (the Thirty-six Immortal Poets; see page 109) was a jidai fudō, or listing of poets of different eras. A later selection, in a work known as the Jidai fudō uta awase (Competition of Poets of Different Periods), differs from Kintō's in presenting one hundred poets as paired, competing rivals. This anthology of poets, each represented by three works, is generally accepted as having been commissioned by the retired emperor Go-Toba (r. 1183–98).[1] Believed to have been completed between 1232 and 1235, it sets up an imaginary contest between the one hundred poets, who are evenly divided into "left" and "right" teams. The "left" team is made up of poets represented in the three earliest imperial anthologies: the Kokinshū (A Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern, ca. 905), the Gosenshū (Later Collection, ca. 951–ca. 966), and the Shūishū (Collection of Gleanings, ca. 996–1007). The "right" team is drawn from later authors represented in the five subsequent anthologies: the Go shūishū (Later Collection of Gleanings, 1086), the Kin'yōshū (Collection of Golden Leaves, ca. 1124–27), the Senzaishū (Collection of a Thousand Years, ca. 1188), the Shikashū (Collection of Verbal Flowers, 1151–54), and the Shin kokinshū (New Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern, ca. 1206).
According to tradition, Go-Toba commissioned a Kyoto artist to depict the one hundred poets in an illustrated version of the Jidai fudō uta awase. The story cannot be verified, but the many extant paintings of Go-Toba's one hundred poets, elating mostly from the mid-Kamakura through the Muromachi period, attest to the enormous popularity of his concept. Unfortunately, only fragments of these paintings exist, except for several copies and images made during the Edo period.[2]
Some of the established characteristics of the pictures of the Jidai fudō uta awase can, nevertheless, be determined from what survives. The poets are portrayed in competing pairs, their respective teams and the round in the competition identified. Members of the "left" team are shown at the right, and members of the "right" team are shown at the left. With the notable exception of Hitomaro, the poets in these paintings, in appearance and pose, are unlike their counterparts in traditional kasen-e, which may indicate a deliberate attempt to create a new iconographic tradition.
The present painting depicts two Buddhist monks, Henjō (816–890) on the right and Jichin (the posthumous name of Jien, 1155–1225) on the left. The six poems that were composed in rounds sixteen through eighteen of the competition are written in pairs within the areas marked off above. Each of these areas is decorated with underdrawings of landscapes or flowers, creating the effect of a shikishi ( decorated poem sheet). In the rectangular spaces behind the poets, their names are inscribed. The poems are written in an unusual style that combines kana with man'yōgana, the first Japanese system, in which Chinese characters were used to represent Japanese sounds. The practice is believed to have come into vogue in the late Kamakura period.[3]
The two poets are dressed in monks' habits, which are drawn with a flat wood stylus called a mokuhitsu—hence the title of the original scroll, Mokuhitsu jidai fudō uta awase-e (Stylus-Illustrated Competition of Poets of Different Periods). This implement creates thread-thin parallel lines that reveal the white of the paper between the lines, producing an effect known as hihaku (flying white). Introduced from China as early as the mid-eighth century, the technique seems to have later become closely associated with the Shingon sect of Esoteric Buddhism.[4] Attempts to individualize the poets' features are evident: Henjō is represented as a youngish monk, while Jichin appears as an older man with an unusually prominent nose. He seems to be on a winning streak, for his younger rival looks at him in consternation.
The handscroll from which this fragment was taken once belonged to the Mōri collection, and it listed at the beginning the names of all one hundred contestants.[5] However, the box that housed the scroll bears an inscription dated 1725, indicating that even at that time the scroll was incomplete, as the box is large enough for only one emaki. The scroll included the first forty-eight poets, with the exception of the forty-third and the forty-fifth, who were missing.[6] Another fragment is now in the collection of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco,[7] but its calligraphy differs from that of the Burke and other fragments. More than one calligrapher may thus have been involved in this daunting undertaking—the copying of three hundred poems.
The six poems of this fragment read as follows:
16th Round, Left
Cherry trees on Mount Furu at Iso no Kami
are as old as the moumain.
No one knows who planted them there.[8]
16th Round, Right
The leaves have turned, yet linger
still in the valley.
Autumn showers deepen their colors—
the tenth month of the year.[9]
17th Round, Left
Everyone again is garbed
in hues of springtime blossoms.
Oh, tear-stained sleeves, will you now become dry?[10]
17th Round, Right
Vainglorious though I may be,
I yearn to protect, under my priestly sleeves,
the people of this woeful world.[11]
18th Round, Left
Mist on the tips of the leaves,
dew at the roots of the tree,
sooner or later all will vanish.[12]
18th Round, Right
Oh, that I may linger
on this darkened path,
that it may brighten with
the Buddha’s Law.[13]
[Miyeko Murase 2000, Bridge of Dreams]
[1] Mori Tōru 1978, pp. 153ff.
[2] For reproductions of these later examples, see ibid., figs. 33–35.
[3] Ibid., p. 167, no. 3.
[4] Shōsōin Office 1968, p. 153.
[5] Mori Tōru 1978, fig. 22.
[6] Ibid., p. 106, no. 1.
[7] Y. Shimizu and Rosenfield 1984, no. 38.
[8] Gosenshū, no. 49.
[9] Shugyokushū, no. 6107.
[7] Unlike the other poems quoted in the colophon, this verse is taken not from one of the imperial anthologies but from a collection of Jichin's poetry compiled from 1328 to 1346.
[10] Kokinshū, no. 847.
[11] Senzaishū, no. 1134.
[12] Shin kokinshū, no. 757.
[13] Ibid., no. 931.

Mōri Family Collection Japanese; Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation , New York (1982–2015; donated to MMA)

New York. Asia Society. "Japanese Poets and Poetry," June 16, 1987–September 6, 1987.

Richmond. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. "Jewel Rivers: Japanese Art from The Burke Collection.," October 25, 1993–January 2, 1994.

Santa Barbara Museum of Art. "Jewel Rivers: Japanese Art from The Burke Collection.," February 26, 1994–April 24, 1994.

Minneapolis Institute of Arts. "Jewel Rivers: Japanese Art from The Burke Collection.," October 14, 1994–January 1, 1995.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Japanese Art from The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," March 30–June 25, 2000.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Great Waves: Chinese Themes in the Arts of Korea and Japan II," March 22–September 21, 2003.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Japan: A History of Style," March 8, 2021–April 24, 2022.

Murase, Miyeko, Il Kim, Shi-yee Liu, Gratia Williams Nakahashi, Stephanie Wada, Soyoung Lee, and David Sensabaugh. Art Through a Lifetime: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection. Vol. 1, Japanese Paintings, Printed Works, Calligraphy. [New York]: Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, [2013], p. 35, cat. no. 45.