Minamoto no Yoshiie, from the series Six Immortal Samurai Poets (Buke Rokkasen) Artist: Yashima Gakutei (Japanese, ca. 1786–1868)

ca. 1827

Asian Art

By appointment, Duffy Study Room

八島岳亭 「武家六歌仙　源義家」 江戸時代


These prints [ILE.2017.30.45–.50] are from a set of the Six Immortal Samurai Poets, or Buke Rokkasen, one of Yashima Gakutei’s masterpieces. The seated warriors—historical figures from the tenth to the early fifteenth centuries—dominate the compositions against thick gold pigment. The kyōka poets of the Edo period whose verses adorn the prints would have been fully aware of the lives and deeds of these samurai soldiers. Among the five, Minamoto no Sanetomo (1192–1219), identified as Kamakura Udaijin, or the Minister of the Right in Kamakura, was perhaps the best known as a poet. The kyōka, full of both nostalgia and satire, show the poets’ complex feelings about samurai. Yet, they were grateful for the peace and prosperity of the country, especially at the new year, when poets reflected on life and looked forward to the year ahead.

Medium

Surimono, shikishi-ban; polychrome woodblock prints with gold and silver pigment and heavy gauffrage

Dimensions

sheet: 8 1/4 × 7 5/16 in. (21 × 18.5 cm)

Credit Line

Promised gift of Virginia Shawan Drosten and Patrick Kenadjian, B.A. 1970

Loan number

ILE2017.30.49

Geography

Japan

Culture

Japanese

Period

Edo period (1615–1868)

Classification

Prints

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance
Sale Sotheby's London 6/8/2004, lot 474; sold to Virginia Shawan Drosten and Patrick Kenadjian, Koenigstein im Taunus, Germany, 2004 (on loan to the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., 2017–present)
Bibliography
  • Sadako Ohki and Adam Haliburton, The Private World of Surimono: Japanese Prints from the Virginia Shawan Drosten and Patrick Kenadjian Collection (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2020), 61–69, no. 12, ill
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

color woodcuts, surimono

Inscriptions

AH done 6-8-18. Revised 6/15/18.\r\n武家六歌仙　源義家\r\nMinamoto Yoshiie from the Six Immortal Warrior Poets \r\n\r\n福迺屋　Fukunoya (Uchinari; originally Go-gawa later own Shippouren or Seven Treasures Club; emblem: concave diamond within circle.)\r\n\r\nharusame no/ yado ni gunsho wo/ yomi nagara\r\nabekawa mochi* wo/ tairage ni keri\r\n\r\nIndoors on a rainy spring day\r\nreading chronicles of war,\r\nI wiped out the Abekawa\r\nrice cakes.\r\n\r\n\r\n(AH done 3-27-19)\r\n\r\n春雨の　宿尓軍書を　よ三な可ら\r\n阿邊(辨)*川も知を　たひらけ尓介り\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n*Abekawa mochi means rice cake padded with sweet soybean flour (kinako).\r\n\r\n*The character for 'be' of Abekawa solved. No one knows the "jibo" the original kanji for this abbreviation but the Kodama's Kuzushiji dictionary for the section of "he" records this kanji. SO 2-4-18

Signed

Gakutei hitsu

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