Paired Calligraphies: Ripening Tea and Vast and Calm, 1841

Details

Nukina Kaioku (1778-1863)
Paired Calligraphies: Ripening Tea and Vast and Calm, 1841
Signed Kaioku sei sho, sealed Bokurin, Rakuyukyo and Hochikujo (or Hochikushi) sha, dated 1841 [cyclical date], seventh month
Pair of hanging scrolls; ink on paper
47 5/8 x 5½in. (121.0 x 14.0cm.) each

Literature

John M. Rosenfield with Fumiko E. Cranston, Extraordinary Persons: Works by Eccentric, Nonconformist Japanese Artists of the Early Modern Era (1580-1868) in the Collection of Kimiko and John Powers, Vol. 2 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Art Museums, 1999), pp. 209-10, no. 174.
John M. Rosenfield and Shujiro Shimada, Traditions of Japanese Art: Selections from the Kimiko and John Powers Collection, (Cambridge, MA: The Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, 1970), no.132.

Exhibited

The Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 1970

Special notice

This lot is offered without reserve.

Lot Essay

The poems have been translated as follows:

(Right)
The pure fragrance of ripening tea;
A guest reaching the gate.
What pleasure!

(Left)
Vast and calm in its own right
Is the place where a bird sings,
A flower falls, and no one intrudes.

Translation by Fumiko E. Cranston from Extraordinary Persons, Vol. 2 (1999), p. 209.

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