Ito Jakuchu (1716-1800), The Thirty-six Poetic Immortals (Sanjurokkasen zu), Edo period, late 18th century | 伊藤若冲　三十六歌仙図屏風　江戸時代中期　18世紀後期

A Kyoto private collection.

Kyoto Art Club, Kyoto, Shiji Chomei-kyo taboke shozohin nyusatsu [Auction of Works from the Chomei Residence and Other Works from a Private Collection], 5th June 1939, Lot 78.

Seitan sanbyakunen kinen Jakuchu ten [The 300th Anniversary of his Birth: Jakuchu], Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Tokyo, 2016, cat. no. 37.

Seitan sanbyakunen o iwau Jakuchu to Buson [Jakuchu and Buson: Celebrating Their 300th Birthdays], Okada Museum of Art, Hakone, 2016, cat. no. 6.

Ninsei & Kenzan, Okada Museum of Art, Hakone, 2017, no. 50.

10th Anniversary of the Museum Part 1 Jyakuchu and Isson, Okada Museum of Art, Hakone, 2022, exh. no. 17 (unillustrated).

Jin Matsushima, "Ito Jakuchu: Oshi-e Haritsuke Folding Screens with the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals" in Kokka seiwa kai [The 'Flower of the Nation' Discussion Society], no. 1008, Tokyo, 2006, p. 7.

Kyoko Arae, “Interpretation of the Immortal Poets by Ito Jakuchu” in the Waseda Journal of Art History, vol. 50, Tokyo, October 2012, p. 3-22. 

Yoichi Shibuya ed., Jakuchu wa e de sekai o sukuitakkata [Jakuchu: Redeeming the World Through His Art], Sightart, vol. 2, Tokyo, 2015, pp 52-53.

Aya Ota, Ito Jakuchu sakuhinshu [Collected Works by Ito Jakuchu], Tokyo, 2015, pp. 170-171.

"Ito Jakuchu: Forever Avant-Garde" in Bijutsu techo [Art Journal], Tokyo, April 2016, (the left screen only).

Miho Mabuchi, "Research on Ito Jakuchu's Immortal Poets" in Kokka [Flower of the Nation], vol. 1450, Tokyo, August 2016.

Kobayashi Tadashi ed., Masterpieces of the Okada Museum of Art, vol. 1, Tokyo, 2019, pp. 154-55, no. 107.

Jakuchu is known to have painted three pairs of screens depicting the Thirty-six Poetic Immortals. One pair in the collection of the Denver Art Museum (accession numbers 1977.35.1 and 1977.35.2) is inscribed with the artist’s age of eighty three. A second pair, in the Aichi Prefectural Museum, bears a signature dating from five years earlier when Jakuchu was seventy-eight (by the old Japanese count). The pair of screens from the Okada Museum collection is signed Beito-o hachijuissai ga (Painted by Old Man Beito in his eighty-first year).

At first glance, Jakuchu appears to play with the sanctity of the Thirty-six Poetic Immortals. The selection of literary exemplars from the Asuka (538-710), Nara (710-794) and Heian periods (794-1185), include great poets canonised in poetry collections such as the Manyoshu [Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves, c. 759], the Kokin wakashu [Collection of Ancient and Modern Poems, c. 905], and the Hyakunin isshu [One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets c. 1235], among others. Their poems and accompanying portraits were often used as decorative motifs for screen paintings. Here, the classical poets are engaged in leisurely pastimes and pursuits: one poet balances small objects on his shamisen, another can be seen playing with a yoyo; others smoke pipes, rest their heads languidly in their arms, drink sake and play go.

Some of the poets can be identified by conventional modes of representation, or by subtle visual links with their most famous poems. The poet-sage straddling a koto (rightmost panel of the right screen) appears to be riding a hobby horse as he tugs on the cords at each end like reigns. This figure may represent Ki no Tsurayuki (circa 872-945), associated with the poem:¹

In the reflection

of the pure water

at Osaka Barrier you can see

the bridle-led horses

from Mochizuki.²

Oosaka no

seki no shimizu ni

kaga miete

ima ya hikuran

mochizuki no koma.

On the rightmost panel of the left screen, a monk figure with shaved head blows and fans soap bubbles which form crescent moon shapes. This alludes to the waka poem by Priest Sosei (Sosei Hoshi, circa 844-910):³

As you said, ‘I’m coming right away,’

I waited for you

through the long autumn night,

but only the moon greeted me

at the cold light of dawn.⁴

Ima kon to

iishi bakari ni

nagatsuki no

ariake no tsuki o

machiidetsurukana

There are even more subtle and layered connections used to represent the poets here. One poet, Fujiwara no Toshiyuki (d. ca. 901-907), can be recognised by his courtly costume. He writes the characters for Ten Thousand Years (banzai) – a celebratory word for longevity and prosperity – using a brush with his mouth. This is a reference to a scene in Nishikawa Sukenobu’s (1671-1750) woodblock-printed book Ehon tamakazura (circa 1736), known as Shinobi-koi, which depicts a courtesan spraying ink from her mouth to form the characters for ‘secret’ or ‘enduring love’ on a wall in graffiti-esque style. ⁵ The poetic link is strong here due to Toshiyuki’s famous poem, written from the perspective of a woman longing for her lover:

Unlike the waves that approach

the shores of Sumiyoshi Bay,

why do you avoid the eyes of others,

refusing to approach me –

even on the path of dreams?⁶

Suminoe no

kishi ni yoru nami

yoru sae ya

yume no kayoiji

hitome yokuran

As well as the numerous poetical allusions in Jakuchu’s Thirty-six Poetic Immortals screens, food is central to understanding the multiple meanings present in the composition. The inclusion of tofu dengaku, ohagi rice sweets, radishes and octopuses, along with some of the poets preparing dishes, may seem whimsical or purely humorous at first, but they reflect a greater trend popular in Kyoto in the eighteenth century. During this time, several amateur culinary instruction manuals were published that referenced the Thirty-six Poetic Immortals either in the number of courses served, or in the number of methods used for preparing dishes. Of particular relevance is mention of the preparation for a daimyo of tofu in thirty-six ways, each named after a Poetic Immortal.⁷

In this light, Jakuchu’s humorous portrayal of the Poetic Immortals preparing tofu dengaku and drinking sake can be seen as a carefully conceived visual pun. Yet another layer emerges: a few of the figures adopt poses reminiscent of musical performance. On the right screen, the poetess Nakatsukasa (912-991) wields a pestle and mortar like a stringed instrument, while below her on the same panel another (perhaps Princess Shikishi, 1149-1201) grills dengaku skewers on grates that strikingly resemble a koto. Dengaku – though referring here to skewered tofu grilled with miso – originally denoted a folk art of music and dance that later influenced Noh theatre. The name tofu dengaku derives from the resemblance between the white tofu with miso and the tall stilts, white hakama (pleated skirt-like garment), and colourful robes of dengaku performers.⁸ Thus, the painting can be read not only as a depiction of the culinary dengaku but also as a witty mitate (parody, or ‘elegant confusion’) of musical performance.⁹ Furthermore, the theme of the Four Accomplishments (kinki shoga: music, go, calligraphy and painting) appears both overtly, in instruments and writing utensils, and subtly, in the arrangement of tofu, cooking tools, and trays.¹⁰

Jakuchu was the eldest son of a wealthy merchant family. For generations they ran the wholesale greengrocer business, the Masuya (also known as Masugen), in the Nishiki market district that is still active as a food market in Kyoto today. Produce features prominently in his work, and there is at times a deep spirituality and lightness in the treatment of his subjects. In the signature here, Jakuchu refers to himself as Old Man Beito, (Old Man One To of Rice), a name he used in the beginning of the 1790s until his death. According to the Shosai hikki by Hiraga Hakusan, Jakuchu used this name to mark the paintings he sold to fund the stone sculptures he was creating for the Sekihoji Temple as part of a large-scale project to adorn its gardens with statues of the Five Hundred Arhats.¹¹

1. Arae Kyoko, “Interpretation of the Immortal Poets by Ito Jakuchu” in the Waseda Journal of Art History, vol. 50, Tokyo, October 2012, p. 12.

2. Translated in Nicholas J. Teele, “Rules for Poetic Elegance: Fujiwara no Kinto’s ‘Shinsen Zuino’ & ‘Waka Kuhon’” in Monumenta Nipponica, vol. 31, no. 2, 1976, p. 161.

3. Arae, “Interpretation of the Immortal Poets”, p. 11.

4. Translated by Peter McMillan in One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each: A Treasury of Classical Japanese Verse, London, 2018, no. 21.

5. Arae, “Interpretation of the Immortal Poets”, p. 15-16.

6. Translated by McMillan in One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each, no. 18.

7. Mabuchi Miho, “Jakuchu’s Six Poetic Immortals”,” in Kokka [Flower of the Nation], no. 1402, Tokyo, 2012, p. 33.

8. Arae, “Interpretation of the Immortal Poets”, p. 16.

9. Ibid., p. 16-17.

10. Ibid., p.18.

11. Money L. Hickman and Yasuhuro Sato, The Paintings of Jakuchu, New York, 1989, p. 29. 

來源

京都私人收藏

《四時長明居他某家所蔵品入札》，京都美術倶楽部，京都，1939年６月5日，編號78

展覽

《生誕300年記念　若冲》，東京都美術館，東京，2016年，編號37

《生誕300年を祝う 若冲と蕪村》，岡田美術館, 箱根，2016年，編號6

《仁清と乾山　京のやきものと絵画》，岡田美術館, 箱根，2017年，展覽編號50（沒載圖）

《開館10周年記念展 第1部 若冲と一村 - 時を超えてつながる》， 岡田美術館， 箱根， 2022年， 展覽編號17（沒載圖）

出版

《逸品紹介　伊藤若冲筆　三十六歌仙圖押繪貼屏風》，國華清話会，8號，東京，2006年，頁7

新江京子，《伊藤若冲の歌仙絵を読み解く》，美術研究，卷50，東京，2012年，頁3－22

渋谷陽一，《若冲は絵で世界を救いたかった》，Sightart，2號、東京，2015年，頁52－53

 太田彩，《伊藤若冲作品集》，東京，2015年，頁170-171

 《永遠のアヴァンギャルド、その正体　伊藤若冲》，美術手帖，東京，2016年4月，左幅

 馬渕美帆，《伊藤若冲の歌仙図研究》，《國華》，1450號，東京2016年8月

小林忠編，《岡田美術館名品撰》，卷1，東京，2019年，編號107