Over Robe (Uchikake) with Bamboo

Gion Nankai

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This rare uchikake is the work of Gion Nankai, a well-known poet and painter of the early Nanga (Literati) movement, which had roots in Chinese painting traditions and Confucian studies. Bamboo, vividly painted here in light and dark ink enhanced with a mist of gold powder, was a favored subject of Nanga artists who were largely based in the Kyoto area. Karakane Kōryū (1675–1738), a merchant and literary scholar from Izumi Sano (present- day Osaka), commissioned this over robe for one of his concubines; it was thereafter treasured as a family heirloom. In 1824, on the occasion of the marriage of one of Kōryū’s great-granddaughters, the literati poet Rai San’yō (1780–1832) wrote a laudatory kanshi (a poem written entirely in Chinese characters) about the unsigned garment, thereby establishing its provenance.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art