Minneapolis Institute of Art

Mount Fuji

Calligrapher: Shibano Ritsuzan

Date

late 18th century

Medium

Hanging scroll, ink on paper

Department

Asian Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Shibano Ritsuzan was a Confucian scholar and literatus—a learned person who cultivated his skills in arts and letters. In 1787 he was summoned to serve the Tokugawa shogunate government. Ritsuzan became one of the main architects of legal codes that enforced the stricter Neo-Confucian teachings of Zhu Xi (1130–1200) and ended earlier steps towards liberalization. This is one of Ritsuzan’s most famous verses. Written in running script, he disregarded the five-character format of his poem and wrote it rather unorthodox in four columns of 13-12-12-3 characters: 誰将東海水 濯出玉芙蓉 幡地三 / 州尽 挿天八葉重 雲霞蒸大麓 / 日月避中峰 獨立原無競 自為 / 衆嶽宗 Who took water from the Eastern Sea, / And washed this lovely lotus so clean? / The mountain bestrides three provinces, / A mound of eight petals piercing the skies. / Clouds and mist ring the great foothills like steam; / The sun and moon shun her central peak. / Alone she stands, ever without peer, / The grandest mountain of them all! (Trans. Timothy Bradstock, Judith Rabinovitch) Japan, Asia

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