Bamboo Flute (Shakuhachi), from the series Catalogue of the Arts (Shogei zukushi)

ca. 1811

On view, 4th floor, Special Exhibitions

砂山五清（抱亭）「尺八」　諸藝づくしより江戸時代

Hōtei Gosei was a student of Katsushika Hokusai and produced many surimono at the beginning of his career. This print is part of a series on the arts sponsored by the Go-gawa, or Five Directions Group, and is devoted to the shakuhachi, a bamboo flute. By the Edo period, the shakuhachi was almost exclusively associated with the itinerant monks of the Fuke sect of Zen Buddhism who traveled throughout the country blowing the flute and wearing head-enveloping baskets, depicted here draped with the flute’s satchel. The satchel shows a waterfall-ascending carp and red fylfots, the emblem of the Go-gawa.

Medium: Surimono, horizontal chū-ban; polychrome woodblock print with gauffrage
Dimensions: sheet: 7 1/2 × 10 1/16 in. (19 × 25.5 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Virginia Shawan Drosten and Patrick Kenadjian, B.A. 1970
Accession Number: 2020.2.3
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

Joan B. Mirviss (dealer), New York; sold to Virginia Shawan Drosten and Patrick Kenadjian, Koenigstein im Taunus, Germany, 1985 (on loan to the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., 2017–2019); given to the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., 2019

Bibliography

Joan B. Mirviss and John T. Carpenter, Jewels of Japanese Printmaking: Surimono of the Bunka-Bunsei Era 1804–1830 (Tokyo: Ota Memorial Museum of Art, 2000), 70–71, no. 23

Object copyright

No Copyright - United States

Additional information

Object/Work type

color woodcuts, still lifes, surimono

Subject

Fuke (sect) Zen bamboo baskets carp fish (animals) flutes (aerophones) handwriting monks satchels shakuhachi waterfalls

Inscriptions

Uguisu no\r\nNe o shakuhachi to\r\nKikumade ni\r\nNokiba ni kayou\r\nUme ga Kakogawa\r\n\r\n“The song of the warbler\r\nMelding with that of the flute\r\nReaches as far as the eaves,\r\nBeneath which flows the Kako River\r\nPerfumed with scent of plum. Kinshirô Ichitomo”\r\n\r\nReference: Ota p. 70 (cat. no. 23), Translation by John T. Carpenter\r\n\r\n\r\nMistaking the sound of the warbler for a flute at eave's edge, where the scent of the plum tree courses along with the Kako River\r\n\r\nAH 3/2/2018\r\n鴬の　ねを尺八と　きくまてに\r\n軒端にかよふ　梅か加古川　　　　　　琴詩楼一友\r\n\r\nReference: Ota p. 70 (cat. no. 23)

Signed

Hōtei Gosei hitsu (brushed by Hōtei Gosei)
五清筆
抱亭五清＝砂山金蔵＝砂山五清 (active 1804-1835; 1768-1835)

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