Album: Taketori Monogatari
Artist/Culture
Tosa school
(Japanese, 14th–mid 19th century)
Date16th century
Mediumpainting on paper
Dimensions16.9 x 46.2 cm (6 5/8 x 18 3/16 in.)
ClassificationsBooks
Credit LineMuseum purchase
Object number1953.55
Label TextOriginally an illustrated handscroll, now mounted as two volumes in a folding book format, this fairy tale has been a favorite of the Japanese from the earliest times. It is believed to have developed in its present form in the late ninth and early tenth centuries. Mentioned in the "Picture Competition" (e-awase) chapter of The Tale of Genji as "the ancestor of all romances", it tells of a celestial maiden Kaguyahime (The Shining Princess) who was found as a three-inch child in a bamboo stem by a bamboo cutter and brought up as his daughter. In a short time she became a beautiful maiden or normal size. Miraculously, the bamboo cutter found gold within the bamboo stalks and became a wealthy man. This illustration depicts the scene in which the bamboo cutter speaks with the five noble suitors for his adopted daughter's hand. His wife and daughter are inside the house.
The anonymous painters--several hands are evident--of this work are working in a style derived from the indigenous painting tradition called yamato-e which developed in the Heian period and reached its highpoint in the Kamakura period (1185-1392). It incorporated subjects from the native Japanese literature of tales, poetry, and romance in a painting technique characterized by bright opaque colors and fine details. The Tosa school, with the imperial court as its chief patron, carried this tradition into the Edo period, when it became part of the basis artistic vocabulary of Japanese painters.
ProvenanceJ. van Leonen Martinet, Amsterdam HollandOn View
Not on view
