Sōtatsu: Making Waves
Kōetsu Sanjūrokkasen (Thirty-six immortal poets)
Poet and scholar Fujiwara Kintō (996–1075) came up with the concept of thirty-six canonical poets. The earliest extant combinations of poet portraits and representative verse (kasen-e), however, emerged in the thirteenth century, produced on horizontal scrolls representing the poets in competition (uta-awase). In the early seventeenth century, woodblock-printing technologies of various degrees of sophistication and luxury aided the dissemination of classical literature and imagery.
The most sophisticated Kōetsu-Sōtatsu collaborations on this theme avoided literal depictions and used indirect motifs, often relating to the poem’s content. But this book represents a more pragmatic, didactic approach. Early editions (circa 1610) are monochrome and have a sequential arrangement of eighteen right-facing and eighteen left-facing poets to simulate a competition. The version seen here has been hand colored, and the sequence is irregular. Word and image were carved on a single woodblock for printing. In other, more delicate printed works, such as the nō librettos by Kōetsu to the right, single characters or single lines of characters were carved as a type block; the smaller scale permitted greater detail. In all cases, the typefaces captured Kōetsu’s distinctive calligraphy style.
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