Parody of Palace Servants Heating Sake over a Fire of Maple Leaves

ca. 1750

Not on view

In one scene of The Tale of the Heike, Emperor Takakura happens upon servants who have swept up maple leaves to make a fire to heat sake. The emperor remarks that they seem to be aware of a poem by the Tang poet Bo Juyi alluding to just such a scene. In this parody of the episode, one of the servants plays a three-stringed shamisen, which is anachronistic, since the instrument was not used in Japan until the seventeenth century. Beside the scene the artist has added a hokku (seventeen-syllable seasonal poem), perhaps of his own composition

Irozuku ya
momiji o takite
sake no kan

How colorful!
Burning crimson leaves
to heat rice wine

—Trans. John T. Carpenter

Artwork Details

見立『平家物語』紅葉焚図
Title: Parody of Palace Servants Heating Sake over a Fire of Maple Leaves
Artist: Okumura Masanobu (Japanese, 1686–1764)
Period: Edo period (1615–1868)
Date: ca. 1750
Culture: Japan
Medium: Red-colored woodblock print (benizuri-e); ink and color on paper
Dimensions: Image: 16 5/16 × 11 3/4 in. (41.4 × 29.8 cm)
Classification: Prints
Credit Line: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund and Rogers Fund, 1949
Object Number: JP3079
Curatorial Department: Asian Art

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Fagot–gatherer Finds Boy with Sparrow, Okumura Masanobu Japanese, Monochrome woodblock print; ink on paper, Japan — Fagot–gatherer Finds Boy with Sparrow
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