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Album of Japanese and Chinese Poems to Sing

Calligraphy by Konoe Nobutada Japanese
early 17th century
Not on view
Konoe Nobutada, a courtier-calligrapher famed for his bold, expressive, and idiosyncratic handwriting, inscribed the decorated poetry sheets (shikishi) for an album comprising selections from Japanese and Chinese Poems to Sing, compiled about 1013 by the courtier-poet Fujiwara no Kintō (966–1041). This was surely one of the most widely studied and cited poetry anthologies available around the time Murasaki Shikibu was crafting her complex tale, which is interwoven with 795 waka (thirty-one-syllable verses) and countless allusions to Chinese poems.

Japanese and Chinese Poems to Sing is composed of 588 Chinese couplets and 216 accompanying waka, interspersed with each other as if to draw out resonances in poetic imagery and style.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • 近衛信尹書　 『和漢朗詠集』 色紙帖
  • Title: Album of Japanese and Chinese Poems to Sing
  • Artist: Calligraphy by Konoe Nobutada (Japanese, 1565–1614)
  • Period: Momoyama period (1573–1615)
  • Date: early 17th century
  • Culture: Japan
  • Medium: Album of thirty-six leaves; each on gold, silver, or colored decorated paper
  • Dimensions: Each: 8 3/4 × 10 1/2 in. (22.2 × 26.7 cm)
    Open: 21 in. (53.3 cm)
  • Classification: Calligraphy
  • Credit Line: Mary and Cheney Cowles Collection, Gift of Mary and Cheney Cowles, 2018
  • Object Number: 2018.853.38
  • Curatorial Department: Asian Art

More Artwork

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A Song of Unending Sorrow (Chōgonka), Konoe Nobutada Japanese, Hanging scroll; ink on paper, Japan
A Song of Unending Sorrow (Chōgonka)
Attributed to Konoe Nobutada
early 17th century
Armor (<i>Gusoku</i>), Saotome Ietada Japanese, Iron, lacquer, silk, gilt copper, Japanese
Armor (Gusoku)
Armorer Helmet bowl signed Saotome Ietada
Armorer Breastplate inscribed inside, Myōchin Munesuke
16th and 18th centuries
Letter, Xue Mingyi Chinese, Folding fan mounted as an album leaf; ink on gold-flecked paper, China
Letter
Xue Mingyi
dated 1597
Tenjin Traveling to China, Konoe Nobutada Japanese, Hanging scroll; ink on paper, Japan
Tenjin Traveling to China
Konoe Nobutada
late 16th century
Helmet (<i>Zukinnari Kabuto</i>), Iron, lacquer, Japanese
Helmet (Zukinnari Kabuto)
Japanese
16th century

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