Currently not on view
The Three Views of Japan,
1902
Tanomura Chokunyu 田能村直入, 1814–1907
Tomioka Tessai 富岡鉄斎, on mounting, 1837–1924
Tomioka Tessai 富岡鉄斎, on mounting, 1837–1924
Japanese
Meiji era, 1868–1912
2015-6768 a-c
Chokunyu’s boldly brushed images and inscriptions represent the Three Landscapes of Japan (Nihon sankei), a group of important sights first listed by the Neo-Confucian scholar Hayashi Gaho in 1643. Tessai’s calligraphy and paintings around the mounting of each work further enliven Chokunyu’s depictions. On the right is the Itsukushima Shrine located in Hiroshima Prefecture in the south of Japan. The shrine was built over a bay, so that the devout could approach by boat. The sandbar of Amanohashidate (center) lies to the north of Kyoto Prefecture in central Japan. It is a roughly two-mile-long, thin strip of land that connects two sides of a bay and is covered with pine trees. The third sight is the islands of Matsushima (left), a group of about 260 tiny islands in Miyagi Prefecture in northern Japan.
Information
Title
The Three Views of Japan
Dates
1902
Maker
Medium
Three hanging scrolls; ink on silk
Dimensions
painting (each): 106 × 35.9 cm (41 3/4 × 14 1/8 in.)
mount (each): 181 × 48.7 cm (71 1/4 × 19 3/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of the P. Y. and Kinmay W. Tang Center for East Asian Art, and museum purchase, Hugh Leander Adams, Mary Trumbull Adams and Hugh Trumbull Adams Princeton Art Fund
Object Number
2015-6768 a-c
Place Made
Asia, Japan
Inscription
[First scroll, right] Scene of Itsukushima:
The monastery and palace are open, facing south.
The sound of people singing brings applause.
What can be compared with the beautiful Itsukushima landscape?
The towering heights are almost a miniature Mount Penglai.
Meiji 35 (1902), October, poem and painting [by] 89 year-old Chokunyu
Calligraphy and painting on the mounting by Tessai, haiku by Yamaguchi Sodou (1642-1716):
At a monastery...
the tide comes in
a deer cries.
[Second scroll, middle] A Scene of Amanohashi[date]:
A line of pines, standing for 10 ri along a road.
It seems a bridge across the sky.
Some say it is the sky beneath peaks.
Who knows if one can hear the sound of waves at the north beach?
Meiji 35 (1902) Transcribed and borrowed [by] 89 year-old Chokunyu
Calligraphy and painting on the mounting by Tessai, haiku by Yosa Buson (1716-1684):
A fleeting night
beside a 6 ri stand of pines -
neither were deep enough.
[Third scroll, left] Scene of Matsuhima:
Walking about, enjoying the view of Matsuhima.
The sky makes for an elegant mood.
Facing the full moon in mid-autumn.
The sun has set... I listen serenely to the waves.
Meiji 35 (1902), October, poem and painting [by] 89 year-old Chokunyu Doujin
Calligraphy and painting on the mounting by Tessai, haiku by Kawai Sora (1649-1710):
Ah, Matsushima...
Make yourself a crane
O cuckoo!
Marks/Labels/Seals
Wooden box inscription: Brushed by Tanomura Chokunyu Dojin, The Three Landscapes of Japan – Three scrolls. Mountings with Paintings by Old Tomioka Tessai.
Culture
Period
Materials
Techniques
–2015 Bachmann Eckenstein, Japanese Art (Basel, Switzerland), sold to the Princeton University Art Museum, 2015.
