Poem on Plum Blossoms

Artists

Description

The text inscribed on this album leaf is a poem on plum blossoms; the poem is inscribed in seven columns, the columns varying in placement, in numbers of characters, and thus in length. The text is written in a combination of Chinese characters, or "kanji", and native Japanese script, or "hiragana". Inscribed by Takabatake Shikibu (1785-1881), the poem is written in script that alternates between cursive, or running, script (Chinese, "xingshu") and draft script (Chinese, "caoshu"). Though not dated, this calligraphic work bears a signature of the artist in the lower right corner--i.e., the second column of text from the right is the artist's signature. The poem is inscribed on an album leaf of a type known in Japanese as a "shikishi", or poem card. At some point the "shikishi" album leaf was mounted as a hanging scroll, the form in which it appears today. In the present mounting, the album leaf appears just below the center of a long stretch of buff mounting paper, which is bordered top and bottom by a strip of white mounting silk with brocaded designs woven in gold; above and below the gold-on-white strips and along the sides of the buff paper is dark green mounting silk subtly embellished with a woven pattern; at the top and bottom of the scroll appear longer sections of plain, medium brown mounting silk, the slightly longer top section articulated with affixed (i.e., mounted in place) "futai" streamers.

Dimensions

calligraphy proper: 16.4 x 12.7 cm (6 7/16 x 5 in.) with mounting, suspension cord and roller ends: 129.7 x 34.2 cm (51 1/16 x 13 7/16 in.)

Provenance

[through ?, Tokyo, 1960s], sold; to Charles Craig, Jr., Santa Barbara, CA (1960s-2004), sold; to Stuart and Beverly Denenberg, Los Angeles (2004-2010), gift; to Harvard Art Museums, 2010. NOTE: The text on a sticker attached to one roller end reads "K889"; the significance of this number remains unknown, but it possibly is the collection, or inventory, number of a previous owner.