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Yamabe no Akahito, from the series Six Poets Viewing Mt. Fuji

Yamabe no Akahito, from the series Six Poets Viewing Mt. Fuji

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Utagawa Toyohiro

This print depicts Yamabe no Akahito, designated a “divine poet” by Ki no Tsurayuki in the preface of Collection of Old and New Japanese Poems, which was compiled in 905 as the first imperial anthology. Toyohiro chose for this series eminent poets who had composed celebrated poems about Mt. Fuji. The series shows the poets dressed in ceremonial court robes in the environs of Mt. Fuji. A long, narrow piece of decorative paper called tanzaku, which was used by courtiers to compose poems, is drawn as if laid over the scene. The tanzaku includes an intricate marbling pattern that reproduces a common decorative effect called suminagashi. Yamabe no Akahito’s poem transcribed on the tanzaku translates as follows: Tago no Ura ni (Along the Tago Bay), Uchi idete mireba (while walking I see) Shirotae no (pure white) Fuji no takane ni (on the peak of Mt. Fuji), Yuki wa furi tsutsu (where snow is falling).
Artist
Utagawa Toyohiro
(Japanese, 1773 - 1828)
Title
Yamabe no Akahito, from the series Six Poets Viewing Mt. Fuji
Date
ca. 1810s
Medium
Color woodcut
Dimensions
229 x 178 mm Overall
Credit
Bequest of John H. Van Vleck
Accession No.
1980.3135
Classification
Prints
Geography
Japan

Related

By 1927, purchased from the Walpole Galleries (New York, NY) by Anna Van Vleck; 29 April 1927, gifted by Anna to her brother, Edward Burr Van Vleck (Madison, WI); 1943, passed through inheritance to Edward’s son, John H. Van Vleck (Cambridge, MA); 9 January 1980, bequeathed by John H. Van Vleck to the Elvehjem Museum of Art [now called Chazen Museum of Art]

  • Mueller, Laura. "Competition and Collaboration: Japanese Prints of the Utagawa School." Leiden, The Netherlands: Hotei Publishing, 2007. p. 87, no. 43

  • Utagawa: Masters of the Japanese Print, 1770-1900: Chazen Museum of Art, 11/2/2009–11/26/2009
  • Competition and Collaboration: Japanese Prints of the Utagawa School: Chazen Museum of Art, 11/3/2007–1/6/2008

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