Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Bamboo on a Windy Day
Ike (Tokuyama) Gyokuran Japanese
Not on view
Married to the celebrated literati artist Ike no Taiga, Gyokuran studied painting under her husband’s tutelage. From her mother, Yuri, she learned the arts of waka poetry composition and calligraphy. Here Gyokuran effectively frames the composition by depicting only the tips of bamboo stalks bending in a steady breeze, while the strands of calligraphy with delightful bounding rhythm also seem to dangle in the wind. The waka inscribed at the top reads:
Sunao naru
tomo to midori ya
chiyo kakete
iro mo kawaranu
yado no kuretake
The love of a gentle friend
is like the green leaves
of the bamboo by the inn—
never changing color
for countless years.
—Trans. John T. Carpenter
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