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School of Iwasa Matabei (17th Century)
- Six episodes from Tale of the Heike and The Tale of Genji

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School of Iwasa Matabei (17th Century)
Six episodes from Tale of the Heike and The Tale of Genji
Estimate
(Set Currency)
    $25,000 - $30,000

Sale Information

Sale 2193
japanese & korean art
17 September 2009
New York, Rockefeller Plaza

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Lot Description

School of Iwasa Matabei (17th Century)
Six episodes from Tale of the Heike and The Tale of Genji
Handscroll; ink, color, silver and gold on paper
15 1/8 x 128½in. (38.4 x 351.5cm.)

Provenance

Inoue Tatsukuro, Tokyo

Literature

PUBLISHED:
Tokyo Bijutsu Club, Inoue hakase narabini boke shozohin nyusatsu (Auction catalogue of Dr. Inoue and an anonymous family on 1928.11.1), pl. 161.

Lot Notes

The scenes assembled in this scroll are based on one or more scrolls of Chinese and Japanese themes by Matabei, now mounted as fragments in hanging scroll format, in the Fukui Prefectural Museum of Art, the British Museum and elsewhere. For images, see Sandy Kita, The Last Tosa: Iwasa Katsumochi Matabei, Bridge to Ukiyo-e (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999), figs. 96, 102; Tsuji Nobuo, Iwasa Matabei in Nihon no bijutsu (Arts of Japan) 259 (Tokyo: Shibundo, 1987), pls. 49, 62--65. The Fukui and British Museum paintings have seals affixed.

The first scene in this scroll has been identified as the Suma chapter of The Tale of Genji. Additional scenes include five episodes from Tale of the Heike: "Hogan miyakoochi" (Yoshitsune's flight from the capital), Ashikuri no koto" (The foot-drumming), "Gio no koto" (Gio), "Gakuuchiron no koto" (The quarrel over the tablets) and "Mongaku nagasare" (The exile of Mongaku).

In the scene illustrated (Chapter 5, scene 9, Tale of the Heike), Mongaku, a monk who is an aggressive fundraiser, interrupts a concert for the retired emperor. He brandishes a lethal blade after hitting a recalcitrant courtier over the head with a handscroll, the subscription list for temple donations. This scene is a version of the Matabei painting now in the British Museum (see Tsuji, pl. 64).

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