Golden Tablets
Shinoda Tōkō, who died in 2021 at the age of 107, was best known as a painter, printmaker, and lithographer, but she was also was esteemed as a calligrapher who had studied ancient models as a youth and went on to develop her own distinctive brush-writing style. After she visited New York in the 1940s, many of her paintings and prints reveal the influence of the American Abstract Expressionist movement of the 1950s and 60s. She knew artists such as Cy Twombly and Lee Ufan personally and shared with them Asian-inspired ideas on the use of “blank space” (yohaku) and deconstructionist approaches to the process of inscription. Although Shinoda’s graphic works often incorporate abstracted calligraphic motifs, this example contains a legible poetic message, albeit inscribed using her personal interpretation of an archaic script form.
Translations of the four ancient Japanese court poems, each treating one of the four seasons, are found in the Catalogue Entry below.
Translations of the four ancient Japanese court poems, each treating one of the four seasons, are found in the Catalogue Entry below.
Artwork Details
- 篠田桃紅筆 ゴールデン・タブレット
- Title: Golden Tablets
- Artist: Shinoda Tōkō 篠田桃紅 (Japanese, 1913–2021)
- Period: Heisei period (1989–2019)
- Date: 2011
- Culture: Japan
- Medium: Ink and gofun (ground-shell pigment) on gilded paper
- Dimensions: Image: 31 1/2 × 31 1/2 in. (80 × 80 cm)
Framed: 53 9/16 × 39 3/8 in. (136 × 100 cm) - Classification: Calligraphy
- Credit Line: Gift of Sue Cassidy Clark, in honor of Jerri Donovan, 2013
- Object Number: 2013.507
- Rights and Reproduction: © Shinoda Tōkō
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
More Artwork
A slider containing 5 items.
Press the down key to skip to the last item.
Press the down key to skip to the last item.
Inoue Yūichi
1966
Shinoda Tōkō
1982
Shinoda Tōkō
1984
Unidentified artist
Zhou Wenju
early 20th century
Shinoda Tōkō
dated 2011
Research Resources
The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.