Your Collection

Add this item to your collection
Harvard Art Museums
Incorrect Username, Email, or Password
This object does not yet have a description.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
2024.77.2
People
Imei Shūkei 維明周奎, Japanese (1731 - 1808)
Title
Blossoming Plum under Sun and Moon (left scroll)
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting, hanging scroll
Date
1798
Places
Creation Place: East Asia, Japan
Period
Edo period, 1615-1868
Culture
Japanese
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/377683

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Left scroll of a pair of hanging scrolls; ink and slight color on silk.
Dimensions
image only: 122 x 47 cm (48 1/16 x 18 1/2 in.)
with mount: 191 x 60.5 cm (75 3/16 x 23 13/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • signature: of Shūkei, left scroll, lower :
    寬政戊午仲春圖此雪月雙幅以賀森君家造新年兼加俚語萬年維明

    [I, Imei, painted this pair of snow and moon scrolls in the second month of 1798 and added clumsy poems.]
  • signature: of Rikunyo 六如 (1734–1801), left scroll, upper:

    六如陳人題 [Inscribed by Rikunyo Chinjin]
  • inscription: Left scroll:
    Poem by Rikunyo:


    天蘤(花)爭枝認不真

    擅以疲換一分春

    須臾忍待朝陽上

    出浴仙妃妝更新


    Heavenly flowers (snowflakes) vie in vain for plum branches on which to fall

    Plums are haggard with this bit of remaining winter

    Wait for just a moment, the sun rises/

    Refreshed after a bath, the goddess of plum will renew her appearance.


    Poem by Shūkei:



    一朵花開萬國春

    江山從此日盡親

    又看青女金銀界

    紅旭照來撒玉顏


    A branch is in bloom, the whole country is in spring/

    From now, rivers and mountains get closer to us day by day/

    You see in the white world of the goddess of snow/

    The red sun shines every snow flake.
    (Translation by Yukio Lippit, 2021)





  • seal: left scroll:
    progressing right to left, top to bottom:

    rectangular, relief: 被眼瞞 [Higanman]

    rectangular, relief: 慈周 [Jishū]

    rectangular relief: 六如 [Rikunyo]

    rectangular, intaglio: 少林一枝 [Shōrin ichi-e]

    square, intaglio: 周奎之印 [Shūkei no in]

    square, intaglio: 半環煙水半環山 [Hankan ensui hankan zan]

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Andreas Leisinger, Tokyo (by 2003), sold; to Robert and Betsy Feinberg, Maryland (2003-2024), gift; to Harvard Art Museums, 2024.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Robert S. and Betsy G. Feinberg in honor of Dr. Martha Tedeschi, on her retirement as Director of the Harvard Art Museums
Accession Year
2024
Object Number
2024.77.2
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Publication History

  • Timon Screech, Acquisition : art and ownership in Edo-period Japan, ed. Elizabeth Lillehoj (Warren, CT, 2007), pp. 41-43
  • Rachel Saunders, ed., Catalogue of the Feinberg Collection of Japanese Art, brochure, Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, 2021), pp. 207-208, cat. 207

Exhibition History

  • 32Q: 2600 East Asian, Japanese, Chinese and Korean, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 12/10/2022 - 06/04/2023

Related Articles

Related Works

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu