Drinking Festival of the Eight Immortals of the Wine Cup

Nagasawa Rosetsu 長澤蘆雪

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Tang dynasty poet Du Fu celebrated eight famous drinkers of his age in his poem Eight Immortals of the Wine Cup (Inchū hassenka). In Nagasawa Rosetsu’s playful rendering of this theme, popular with Japanese painters from the late sixteenth century on, the artist has filled his composition with images of the eight drinkers, creating an almost bazaar-like atmosphere. The brushwork in the signature dances a bit compared with his typical style of signing; this could reflect Rosetsu’s harmonizing of his signature with the giddy mood of the painting. Rosetsu was Maruyama Ōkyo’s student and pursued the carefree life of the literati. Hence he was attracted to the unrestrained lives of the individuals shown in this painting.

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