Portraits for One Hundred Poems about One Hundred Poets (Sugata-e hyakunin isshu) 姿絵百人一首

Hishikawa Moronobu 菱川師宣

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Moronobu's version of the selected poems by one hundred famous poets, a collection first compiled in the early Kamakura period (1185–1333), pairs contemporary scenes with small background insets that evoke the poem as if it came from memory or from a view in the distance. Here the book is open to the pages showing the blind musician Semimaru's poem on meeting and parting at the barrier gate at Osaka and the ninth-century courtier Sangi no Takamura's poem calling to the fisherwomen's boats to carry his message of love back to the capital.

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