1606
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Dominant colour
Poem-card from the Shinkokin wakashu (New Collection of Japanese Poems from Ancient and Modern Times) with Design of Pine on a Beach is a 1606 unspecified by Honami Kōetsu, a Baroque work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a small paper card with a pine tree on a sandy beach, painted in gold and silver, and Japanese calligraphy running down the side. This isn’t just a painting—it’s a collaboration. One artist painted the scene, another wrote the poem on top. Only sixteen of these cards survive. The words describe a lonely moon over an ancient capital, blending image and poetry in a single piece. To see more like this, look up the Rimpa school of Japanese painting.
Tawaraya Sotatsu and Hon’ami Koetsu are both associated with the founding of the Rimpa school of Japanese painting. In this poem-card––one of 16 that survive––Tawaraya painted the gold and silver design, over which Hon’ami recorded poems from Shinkokin wakashu. The verses read from top to bottom and from right to left: "Even as I gaze, the thought of it is lonely. High in the heavens the moon-capital lies still in the sky of its dawning."
Read the full account in the museum source.
Hon'ami Kōetsu (Japanese: 本阿弥 光悦; 1558 – 27 February 1637) was a Japanese calligrapher, craftsman, lacquerer, potter, landscape gardener, connoisseur of swords and a devotee of the tea ceremony.
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