見立『平家物語』 紅葉焚図|Parody of Palace Servants Heating Sake over a Fire of Maple Leaves

Okumura Masanobu

ca. 1750 · Red-colored woodblock print (benizuri-e); ink and color on paper · Asian Art

In one scene of The Tale of the Heike, Emperor Takakura happens upon servants who have swept up maple leaves to make a fire to heat sake. The emperor remarks that they seem to be aware of a poem by the Tang poet Bo Juyi alluding to just such a scene. In this parody of the episode, one of the servants plays a three-stringed shamisen, which is anachronistic, since the instrument was not used in Japan until the seventeenth century. Beside the scene the artist has added a hokku (seventeen-syllable seasonal poem), perhaps of his own composition Irozuku ya momiji o takite sake no kan How colorful! Burning crimson leaves to heat rice wine —Trans. John T. Carpenter

Artist

Okumura Masanobu

Date

ca. 1750

Medium

Red-colored woodblock print (benizuri-e); ink and color on paper

Culture

Japan

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Harris Brisbane Dick Fund and Rogers Fund, 1949