The Japanese 13-string koto was depicted by Japanese painters and print-makers to represent one of the Four Accomplishments expected of a scholar: music, painting, calligraphy, and the board game weiqi (replaced here by the Japanese game sugoroku). In this painting, the artist shifts the traditional setting by portraying the Four Accomplishments pursued not by scholars but by courtesans of the entertainment district.
The Four Accomplishments
- School/Tradition
- Ukiyo-e
- Label
- The Four Accomplishments-arts to be mastered by an ideal Chinese scholar-were playing the musical instrument qin, the board game weiqi, calligraphy, and painting. This ideal was adopted in Japan and slightly modified to include koto, a type of zither played by plucking (shown at the far right), and the Japanese board game go (replaced here by sugoroku, a game similar to backgammon). Instead of scholarly gentlemen practicing the Four Accomplishments, however, these paintings show Japanese courtesans in the urban "floating world" of pleasure and entertainment. While geisha and high-class courtesans often possessed great artistic skills, their appearance in conjunction with these scholarly Chinese pursuits creates an unexpected joining of disparate themes and social contexts. This form of artistic play on the unexpected, known as mitate, was popular in literature and visual art during the Edo period (1615-1868).
- Provenance
- To 1903
- Yamanaka & Company, to 1903 [1]
- From 1903 to 1919
- Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Yamanaka & Company in March 1903 [2]
- From 1920
- Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]
- Notes:
- [1] Undated folder sheet note. Also see Original Kakemono and Makimono List, no. 1, pg. 70, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. The majority of Charles Lang Freer’s purchases from Yamanaka & Company were made at its New York branch. Yamanaka & Company maintained branch offices, at various times, in Boston, Chicago, London, Peking, Shanghai, Osaka, Nara, and Kyoto. During the summer, the company also maintained seasonal locations in Newport, Bar Harbor, and Atlantic City.
- [2] See note 1.
- [3] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.
- Collection
- Freer Gallery of Art Collection
- Exhibition History
- Games, Contests and Artful Play in Japan (March 19 to October 23, 2005)
- The Idea of China in Japan: The Tea Ceremony in Japan (December 19, 1999 to June 11, 2000)
- Japanese Ukiyo-e Painting (May 2, 1973 to July 1, 1974)
- Japanese Art—Paintings, Pottery (August 18, 1967 to September 20, 1971)
- Japanese Art, Galleries 3, 4, and 5 (January 1, 1963 to September 16, 1970)
- Centennial Exhibition, Galleries 3 and 4 (February 25, 1956 to January 1, 1963)
- Previous custodian or owner
- Yamanaka and Co. 山中商会 (1917-1965) (C.L. Freer source)
- Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)
- Data Source
- Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
- Artist
- Utagawa Toyohiro 歌川豊広 (1773-1828)
- Date
- 19th century
- Period
- Edo period
- Credit Line
- Gift of Charles Lang Freer
- Medium
- Color and gold on silk
- Dimensions
- H x W (image): 101.7 x 41.5 cm (40 1/16 x 16 5/16 in)
- Type
- Painting
