Thirty-Six Immortal Poets

The throng of figures on this two-panel screen is identifiable as the so-called “Thirty-Six Immortal Poets, ” recognized as paragons of classical Japanese poetry already in the tenth century. The left panel features eighteen poets, while the right features only seventeen. A thirty-sixth figure, Saigū no Nyōgo—one of five female poets in the group—is hidden behind a curtain at upper right. Ikeda Koson’s composition is based on a seventeenth century original by Ōgata Kōrin, a prominent artist of the Rinpa school of Japanese painting, highlighted in this exhibition in Gallery 219.