Poem, Totoki Baigai

Artwork Overview

Totoki Baigai, Poem
Totoki Baigai, Poem
Totoki Baigai
Poem
late 1700s, Edo period (1600–1868)
Totoki Baigai
1749–1804
Poem, late 1700s, Edo period (1600–1868)
Where object was made: Japan
Material/technique: ink; paper
Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 58.3 x 36.5 cm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 22 15/16 x 14 3/8 in
Mount Dimensions (Height x Width x Depth): 148 x 36.5 cm
Mount Dimensions (Height x Width x Depth): 58 1/4 x 14 3/8 in
Credit line: Anonymous gift
Accession number: 1978.0082
Not on display
Add to portfolio

If you wish to reproduce this image, please submit an image request

Images

Label texts

Exhibition Label: “From the Way of Writing to the Weight of Writing," Jun-2007, Ai-lian Liu "A gale of wind makes known the sturdiness of the reeds; Bitter cold acknowledges the endurance of the evergreen trees." Totoki Baigai was a native of Osaka who was educated in classical Chinese, literati painting and calligraphy in Edo, and who later became a Confucian instructor. The poetic couplet, originated in classical Chinese poetry, comments that the virtues of a Confucian gentleman-especially loyalty to his liege lord-are often distinguished under difficult circumstances. The Tokugawa shogunate used Confucianism as the dominant code of ethics for the samurai class and the Japanese society in general. As a Confucian scholar, Baigai no doubt identified himself with this code of ethics in his scholarship and art. The design of each character in this poetry couplet seems also to echo the meaning and the sentiment of the statement-the first line from the right speaks of resistant reeds in a storm wind, and he adapted the cursive style to accentuate the mental image of reeds in wind; the second line, which speaks of the enduring quality of the evergreen tree, has a upright integrity in individual characters as well as the overall composition.

Exhibitions

From the Way of Writing to the Weight of Writing
Ai-lian Liu, curator
2007

Citations

Spencer Museum of Art, The University of Kansas. The Register of the Spencer Museum of Art 5, no. 8, Fall (1980):