Zwei Prinzessinnen im Palast
A Game of Go in the Palace, Kaga Goto
A palace interior from the Tale of Genji runs the length of the kozuka. At the left, before lattice screens, ladies in patterned robes sit around a go board, and cherry blossoms are scattered over the game. A gold veranda cuts across the middle, and another lady sits beyond it. At the right end the building gives way to dark water. On a stone in the stream lies a small spray of bamboo in gold.
Die Szene
The blossoms give the scene its source. In the Tale of Genji, in the chapter Takekawa, the daughters of Tamakazura play go with a blossoming cherry tree as the stake. JAANUS, the dictionary of Japanese art terms, records the episode. It is a small one: two sisters, a board, and a tree in blossom as the prize.
Takekawa means Bamboo River. At the far end of the kozuka, bamboo lies beside running water. It may be the name of the chapter, set quietly at the edge of the scene for whoever knows the story.
Here the board sits at the center of the room, and the blossoms have fallen onto the game. Outside, beyond the veranda, the water runs on.
Das Objekt
The NTHK paper describes a shakudo ground with nanako, a gold back, and figures in high relief with color, and dates the kozuka to the middle Edo period. Its title for the scene is kyuchu kinkishoga-zu, the four accomplishments in the palace: koto, go, calligraphy and painting. Go is one of the four, and the paper names the wider theme rather than the chapter. The kozuka is unsigned and attributed to the Kaga Goto.
The gold is used for the architecture: floor, beams, the long diagonal of the veranda. The figures stay dark, picked out in small patterns. The building carries the light, and the people sit inside it.
Eine Korrektur
An earlier version of this page named Kaga Goto Enjo as the maker and gave the size. The attribution is to the Kaga Goto, without a named maker, and sizes are not given on these pages.
The Palace Kozuka
Kozuka. Mumei, Kaga-Goto. Shakudo, nanako-ji, takabori mit iroe; Rückseite Gold. Kyuchu kinkishoga-zu, nach Genji, Takekawa. Mittlere Edo-Zeit. NTHK Kanteisho. Privatsammlung, erworben in Japan.
In the collection
- Type
- Tosogu › Kozuka
- School
- Goto › Kaga-Goto
- Period
- Edo-Zeit › Mittlere Edo-Zeit
- Material
- Shakudo
- Motif
- Mensch und Legende
