We do not see the face of the poet, whose kneeling figure is all but obscured by her voluminous, layered court garb, against which the graceful fall of her black hair creates a sinuous pattern. The inscription and poems on this portrait identify the sitter as Koōgimi, lady-in-waiting to two successive emperors of the early eleventh century. The selection of poets for the “Fujifusa Version” of the Thirty-six Poetic Immortals is believed to have been edited by the courtier Fujiwara no Fujifusa (born 1295). Only eleven fragments from the handscroll, including this precious example, are known to survive. Koōgimi’s verse alludes to a failed attempt by the Shinto deity Hitokotonushi no Kami to erect a stone bridge (iwabashi) between Mount Katsuragi in Nara and Kinpusen to thesouth. The phrase “stone bridge” has thus come to suggest an interrupted love affair.
Iwabashi no yoru no chigiri mo taenu beshi akuru wabishiki Katsuragi no kami
Last night’s vows of love, like a stone bridge, cannot be extended! At dawn, how sad the god of Katsuragi appears.
—trans. by John T. Carpenter
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小大君 「藤房本 三十六歌仙絵巻」 断簡
Title:The Poet Koōgimi, from the “Fujifusa Version” of Thirty-six Poetic Immortals (Fujifusa-bon Sanjūrokkasen emaki)l
Period:Muromachi period (1392–1573)
Date:15th century
Culture:Japan
Medium:Handscroll fragment mounted as a hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
Dimensions:H. 11 3/8 in. (28.9 cm); W. 16 1/4 in. (41.3 cm) Overall: H. 45 13/16 in. (116.4 cm); W. 22 9/16 in. (57.3 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Mary Griggs Burke Collection, Gift of the Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, 2015
Object Number:2015.300.22
The seated woman depicted with her back to the viewer is identified in the accompanying inscription as the poet Koōgimi (Kodai no kimi, late 10th–early 11th century). The inscription also informs us that she was lady-in- waiting first to Emperor Ichijō (r. 986–1011) and then to Emperor Sanjō (r. 1011–16) when he was still crown prince. At that time, she held the title of sakon, which the inscription gives as ukon—an error that was corrected in the margin by a later hand. It is also known that Koōgimi was the wife of Prince Shigeakira, a direct descendant of Emperor Daigo (r. 897–930). A poem selected from an anthology of her work, the Koōgimishū, is included in the inscription:
Iwabashi no yoru no chigiri mo taenu beshi akuru wabishiki Katsuragi no yama Nightly visits across Iwabashi stopped. When morning came, sadness surrounded Katsuragi Mountain.[1] Koōgimi's voluminous court dress is decorated with small floral patterns in white and touches of red and green on the sleeves. The drawing is particularly animated in describing the undulating flow of her gorgeous long black hair. The exaggerated nailhead brushstrokes and the squat characters of the inscription suggest a date in the early Muromachi period, during the first half of the fifteenth century. The handscroll from which the portrait was separated is known as the Fujifusabon, or Fujifusa Version of the Sanjūrokkasen emaki (Illustrated Handscroll of the Thirty-six Immortal Poets), as it was presumably edited by Fujiwara Fujifusa (Madenokōji Fujifusa, b. 1295). Some ten additional fragments from the scroll are extant.[2] Fortunately, the original sequence can be reconstructed with the aid of a copy once in the possession of the nanga master Tani Bunchō (cat. no.168) and now in the collection of the Jingū Museum of Antiquities, Kuratayama.[3] The placement of the biographical notes beside the portraits, the content of the biographies, and the poems selected indicate that a distant model for the Fujifusa Version may have been the Satakebon, the oldest extant handscroll on the theme of the Thirty-six Immortal Poets. The lively figures in the Fujifusa Version, however, probably more directly reflect the influence of the Narikanebon, a late-thirteenth-century handscroll that signaled a turning point in the production of kasen -e (portraits of master poets) in that it featured a new painting style and depicted its subjects in bold, animated poses.[4] [Miyeko Murase 2000, Bridge of Dreams] [1] The god Hitokotonushi no Kami attempted but failed to build a stone bridge (iwabashi) between Mount Katsuragi in Nara and Kinpsen to the south . The bridge has come to symbolize an interrupted love affair. [2] Mori Tōru 1979, p. 23; see also Mori Tōru 1953, pp. 37–17. [3] Reproduced in Mori Toru 1979, n.p. [4] Ibid., p. 23.
Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation , New York (until 2015; donated to MMA)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Japanese Art from The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," March 30–June 25, 2000.
Minneapolis Institute of Arts. "Post-renovation opening exhibition: Japanese galleries," April 11, 2006–January 17, 2007.
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. 36, cat. no. 46.
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