Alone in Dark Bamboo, circa 1795

Details

Minagawa Kien (1734-1807)
Alone in Dark Bamboo, circa 1795
Signed Minagawa Gen sho, sealed Yuhisai, Minagawa Gen in and Hakukyo
Hanging scroll; ink on paper
46¾ x 9 7/8in. (118.8 x 25 cm.)

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. 176-77, no. 161.

Special notice

This lot is offered without reserve.

Lot Essay

Minagawa Kien was a leading Japanese Confucianist. He has transcribed a poem by Wang Wei (699-759), the well-known Tang court poet, musician and painter, translated as follows:

Alone I sit in dark bamboo,
Strumming the lute, whistling away;
Deep woods that no one knows,
Where a bright moon comes to shine on me.

Translation from Burton Watson, Chinese Lyricism, (New York, 1971), p. 173

More from An Inquiring Mind: American Collecting of Japanese and Korean Art

View All