Title : The Priest Jakuren

Artist : Utagawa Kuniyoshi

Date : c. 1840

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Source : Honolulu Museum of Art
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Description : support of the Robert F. Lange Foundation. Needles on the black pines are not yet dry of raindrops from a passing shower when already mist is rising on an evening in autumn. (translation by Steven D. Carter) The Priest Jakuren (formerly Fujiwara no Sadanaga, d. 1202) was a nephew of the eminent poet Fujiwara no Shunzei, and the adoptive heir to the Mikohidari line of poets until the birth of Shunzei's son Fujiwara no Teika, who would later become the compiler of the One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets. After taking Buddhist orders at the age of twenty-three, Jakuren moved to Saga, Kyoto, and continued to write poetry reflecting the style of his mentor Shunzei. In 1201, he was commissioned by the retired Emperor Go-Toba (r. 1183-1198) to become one of the compilers of the New Collection of Ancient and Modern Poems (1205). Though Jakuren did not live to see the anthology's completion, this poem became one of his representative compositions in the collection, and was also featured later in One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets. In this print by Kuniyoshi, an aged Jakuren and a young temple girl take a stroll outside after a passing autumn shower, using paper umbrellas and raised wooden clogs to protect themselves from the rain. Rays of sunlight suggest a break in the passing showers, and dapple the needles of the pine trees still fresh with dewdrops. Kuniyoshi has portrayed the pine trees so realistically that they appear to materialize from within the shroud of autumn mist.

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