Japanese Woodblock Prints

Japanese Woodblock Prints

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 30. Kikugawa Eizan (1787-1867) | Poem by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro | Edo period, 19th century .

Kikugawa Eizan (1787-1867) | Poem by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro | Edo period, 19th century

VAT reduced rate

Lot Closed

December 19, 01:30 PM GMT

Estimate

5,000 - 6,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

Kikugawa Eizan (1787-1867)

Poem by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro

Edo period, 19th century


woodblock print, from the series Three Young Women with Classical Verse (Waka sannin), signed Kikugawa Eizan hitsu (Brush of Kikukawa Eizan), censor's seal kiwame (approved), published by Sanoya Kihei (Kikakudo), circa 1810s


Horizontal oban: 38 x 25.7 cm., 15 x 10⅛ in.

The title of the series is a pun on the term for the Three Gods of Poetry (Waka sanjin), comprising of Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (circa 662-710), Princess Soto'ori hime (early 5th century) and Yamabe no Akahito (active 724-736). The poem attributed to Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (circa 662-710) has been translated by Helen Craig McCullough in Kokin Wakashu: The First Imperial Anthology of Japanese Poetry (Stanford, 1985), p. 81, no. 334:


We cannot detect

the flowering plum tree's blossoms

for white flakes of snow

flutter to earth everywhere

obscuring the lofty skies


Ume no hana

sore to mo miezu

hisakata no

amagiru yuki no

nabete furereba