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Lot Essay
Uematsu Hobi (1872-1933) was the son of the Tokyo lacquer artist Uematsu Homin (1845-1902). They were from a long line of lacquerers working in a conservative, traditional style. The design is a classic example of a poem-picture (uta-e). A few words and syllables (haru, re ba, u, chi, se, no) are worked into the design, alluding to a poem by Ki no Tsurayuki (c. 872-945) from the tenth-century Kokinshu (Anthology of ancient and modern verse):
haru kureba
yado ni mazu saku
ume no hana
kimi ga chitose no
kazashi to zo miru
Blossoms of the plum,
first to flower when springtime visits the garden
They will deck our master's hat
for all his thousand years.
(From Kokin Wakashu: The First Imperial Anthology of Japanese Poetry, translated and annotated by Helen Craig McCullough [Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1985], 85)
The poem was written for a celebration commemorating a seventieth birthday.
For a similar work by Hobi, see Arakawa Hirokazu, Kindai Nihon no shikkogei (Japanese lacquer art of recent times) (Kyoto: Kyoto shoin, 1985), pl. 100.
haru kureba
yado ni mazu saku
ume no hana
kimi ga chitose no
kazashi to zo miru
Blossoms of the plum,
first to flower when springtime visits the garden
They will deck our master's hat
for all his thousand years.
(From Kokin Wakashu: The First Imperial Anthology of Japanese Poetry, translated and annotated by Helen Craig McCullough [Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1985], 85)
The poem was written for a celebration commemorating a seventieth birthday.
For a similar work by Hobi, see Arakawa Hirokazu, Kindai Nihon no shikkogei (Japanese lacquer art of recent times) (Kyoto: Kyoto shoin, 1985), pl. 100.