Drawings and Poems by Various Artists

Shokusanjin (Ōta Nanpo)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Yosegaki, or "gathered writings," are collaborative works for which prominent poets and painters of the day would each contribute a poem in Chinese or Japanese or a little drawing on a seasonal or poetic theme. Random in arrangement and disjunctive in perspectival and spatial relationships, the images are a cornucopia of pictorial elements representing sundry aspects of life in Edo (present-day Tokyo) during the early nineteenth century. This work, on silk, is a deluxe example with such an impressive array of contributors that we must assume it was compiled over the course of several months, perhaps with certain poets and artists collaborating on particular sections.

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